Officials with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, meanwhile, released more detailed information about the 161 people who were detained in the weeklong Southern California operation.
According to ICE, 95 people were arrested in Los Angeles County, 35 in Orange County, 13 in San Bernardino County, seven in Riverside County, six in Ventura County and five in Santa Barbara County.
The city of Los Angeles saw the most arrests, with 28, while another 24 arrests were made in other communities in the city.
There were nine arrests in Van Nuys, four in Canoga Park, two each in North Hollywood, North Hills, Pacoima and Sun Valley and one each in Arleta, Panorama City and San Pedro.
There were 16 arrests in Santa Ana and six in Compton. The others were scattered around the Southland, with most cities seeing between one and four people arrested.
Similar operations were conducted across the country, with more than 680 people arrested, according to federal authorities.
“These operations targeted public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, as well as individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws, including those who illegally re-entered the country after being removed and immigration fugitives ordered removed by federal immigration judges,” Kelly said.
Kelly said about 75 percent of the people arrested had been “convicted of crimes including, but not limited to, homicide, aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault of a minor, lewd and lascivious acts with a child, indecent liberties with a minor, drug trafficking, battery, assault, DUI and weapons charges.”
Kelly also stressed that ICE conducts such operations “regularly and has for many years.”
Kelly noted, however, that President Donald Trump “has been clear in affirming the critical mission of DHS in protecting the nation and directed our department to focus on removing illegal aliens who have violated our immigration laws, with a specific focus on those who pose a threat to public safety, have been charged with criminal offenses, have committed immigration violations or have been deported and re-entered our country illegally.”
Trump echoed those comments Monday.
“We’re actually taking people that are criminals — very, very hardened criminals in some cases, with a tremendous track record of abuse and problems — and we’re getting them out,” Trump said in a joint news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House.
“And that’s what I said I would do.”
Southland immigration activists responded angrily to news of last week’s raids, saying they feared the operations were the first step in Trump’s vow to carry out mass deportations of people living in the country illegally.
Officials with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles created a toll-free hotline — (888) 624-4752 — for affected immigrants to call for assistance and obtain access to attorneys.
The group also began offering hourly training sessions to inform illegal immigrants about their legal rights.
ICE officials said that of the people arrested during the Southern California raids, 42 had domestic violence convictions, 26 were convicted of drug offenses, 23 for assault and 17 for sex crimes. Other convictions among the arrestees included burglary, weapons violations, battery, identity theft and cruelty toward a child.
The bulk of those arrested were from Mexico, while others hailed from countries including El Salvador, Guatemala, China, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Honduras, Belize, Philippines, Australia, Brazil, Israel and South Korea.
Previous related story: Activists decry immigration enforcement raids
Bonnie says
if our ICE agents prove successful alleviating Southern California from its 2 million thankless, lawless, illiterate, inebriated illegals tearing at the fabric of our society, trashing out our neighborhoods, looting and vandalizing everything in sight, our grandparents will be free to cross the street once again, free from fear of being run down, by a hit-n-run Mexican. Our roads and highways are going to flow significantly better.
Laughing says
Your comment is genuinely funny.
SMHX2 says
Oh Bonnie,
I can see you now, stopping every vehicle passing by your grandparent’s house and asking for their nationality. Please don’t be ignorant, the only lawless, illiterate and inebriated (obviously) POS here is you. Now, stop tearing at the fabric of your dress to ask for unnecessary attention. I’ve never laughed out loud after reading ridiculous comments, congratulations, you succeeded today. LOL!!
Loretta M Carter says
I agree wholeheartedly my mother in law was in fact run down by a drunk driver from Mexico here illegally her and her 5 yr old son were drug 50ft she spent a year in the hospital away from her 7 children paralyzed. She did recover enough to raise 7 children from a wheel chair. ..i am a gramma now and just the other day I was rammed from behind by a shopping cart which caused me to fall forward my cart was well he hit me so hard from behind my own cart slipped from my hands and hit a lil girl and yes it was an impatient illegal who did it……go home make room for us who belong here
SMHX2 says
I’ve been in multiple car accidents in the last 25 years, both caused by caucasians. I wholeheartedly think that they should stop allowing Caucasian elderlies to drive. See how that makes absolutely no sense at all? My car was broken into by a Caucasian homeless person, they should not allow homeless caucasians to live. My previous neighbor and his kids were potheads and partied a lot, yep, they were Caucasian. I could go on and on telling you multiple stories about white people I’ve encountered. Keep your teary eyed stories to yourself, stop being overweight, exercise, eat a healthy diet and don’t fall apart at the age of 50, plain and simple!
Laughing says
Loretta, how did you determine the person behind you with the other cart was illegal? Did you ask for papers? Was an officer involved in some way? Just curious.
SMHX2 says
Loretta determines who is legal or not by the shade card she has in her purse. Anybody with a natural tan is deemed illegal or a thug. Better yet, Loretta is an ugly, old and bitter Caucasian using immigrants and brown people as scapegoats. LOL!
pirrurris says
Bonie,
Please do everyone a favor and don’t come out of your doomsday prepping hole.
Somewhere there is a tree working really hard trying to generate oxygen so you can breath….now go apologize to it.
Have you considered moving to Himabama? You would fit perfect with the test of the white priviledge hypocrite republicans.
callingitasitis says
President Obama deported more illegal aliens (approx. 2.5 million) than President Bush (approx. 2.0 million). Did the News media under reported the deportation? I do not recall any public cry at that time, please post the new link if I missed it, so we all can see it. Maybe this new President will exceed both previous administration or maybe he will be held up by the immigration courts or other federal judges not in the immigration court system. Words is some foreign nationals are planning to fund a plan to flow our immigration court system and it is NOT the Russians. Fake news???? The News media is selectively blind when it promotes their own political agenda (CNN. MSNBC, FOX). You pick your poison, your alternate facts and evidence.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-aliens
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/frequently-asked-questions-about-international-individual-tax-matters
https://www.justice.gov/
https://www.justice.gov/eoir/eoir-immigration-court-listing
The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.
Theodore Roosevelt,
Ron says
THANK YOU ICE.
Ron says
Its about time. Keep up the good work and GET THEM OUT!!!!!! GO TRUMP!!!!!!!!!
Tim Scott says
LOL…”It’s about time.” Did you not read the part where the Director of Homeland Security points out that “ICE conducts such operations regularly and has for many years”? Or are you willfully ignoring that part since it conflicts with the false narrative that Dingbat Donny sold you?
Tom says
The federal government finally does there job and people complain. There not targeting the hard working immigrant, its the ones breaking the law, who cares if its robbery or a murder, down to a DUI their crimes are adding cost too us the tax payers for court fees, and in most cases prison or jail charges. We treat our immigrants better than any other country in the world, if they can’t follow our rules and laws then they deserve to be sent back.
Tim Scott says
Thing is that there is no “finally” about it. ICE has been doing this exact type of targeted deportation of violent criminals for YEARS. The only difference is that the same clowns like Trump who yammered constantly about “we don’t enforce our border” are now standing up and cheering for the exact same operations.
Feb14 says
I have family in other states, all families don’t have to be in the same state. There families can go with them if they really really want to. No one is stopping them from that…right. Go make your country great, so everyone will want to go there…
Sorry whiners... says
We expect DHS/ICE to do their job and enforce the law… we have plenty of our own criminals without importing them from other countries!
Tim Scott says
And they do. Always have. As the man points out, targeting violent offenders has been and should be their priority. Pandering to the weird “oh, but they’re BROWN” racist freaks who support Trump is a different story.
make california great again says
Criminals should be deported! Doesnt matter if they have family here or not.
Make California great again!
Tim Scott says
California is already great…much more so than most if not all other states. Your nonsensical parroting of Trump sloganeering does you no honors.
As to criminals, I prefer some prioritization in my law enforcement. That means that someone who is doing no real harm is pretty low and I’d prefer law enforcement not waste much time on them.
sick of illegals and crappy americans too says
Does anyone have numbers on how much money LA spends on illegals? I’m positive it doesnt come even close to the amount of sales tax they pay when making an american purchase.
Jail… housing, defense, appeals etc
Schools… bigger and more classroom sizes, english learner classes for kids and their parents
medical care, for the children
cash aid, for the children
sorting out identity theft of real citizens
how much money is being sent back to mexico by illegals… sure , some say they sustain our economy, but not when money is being sent back to their country.
If we could spend less time catering to illegals, we could spend more time on our own criminal citizens. More money on education for our citizens. More time catching welfare fraud and identity theft cases on our citizens.
Do americans commit crimes, heck yeah they do! But so much time and effort is clogging up the systems with illegals!
Why do illegals spend so much energy on fighting the rules of this country, instead of trying to make their land better? Where will they go when they’re done trashing our land and rules? when i was growing up, illegals took pride and had a desire to become part of us. Now, they want to divide and conquer. Im told illegals come her to escape the conditions of their land. So why are they still reproducing kids into that situation? Why are they stressing out their families and creating fear? Thats no way to live!
and for you insane people that say this was their land first or that its not amercian land… i do understand history, and i also understand the laws of today. we arent living in the past, and neither should you! many thousands if not millions of people have come here doing things the right way, and they too are not happy with illegals.
FYI, if we could get employers to stop hiring illegals, for cheaper labor, that would be great too.
CALIFORNIA says
Make California great again? CALIFORNIA HAS ALWAYS BEEN GREAT. Gtfo of my state, underachieving fool.