Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 275 illegal aliens around San Antonio, Texas in a week-long operation. The majority had existing criminal records.
“Criminal aliens have taken advantage of our immigration laws for long enough. We will continue to prioritize public safety,” the ICE San Antonio office said in a written statement.
“These joint operations show the public what can be done when agencies work together toward a common goal of public safety.”
ICE agents worked with state troopers and agents from the FBI, ATF, DEA, Border Patrol and US Marshals to arrest the illegals during the operation, which concluded on 11 May.
Among the aliens arrested were a 37-year-old Cuban national with convictions for manufacturing and distributing narcotics, a 49-year-old Mexican with convictions for assault and battery and foreign criminals with convictions for domestic violence, cocaine possession, larceny, DWI, drug trafficking, weapons offenses, and assault.
Many had already been deported from the US before.
The operation ran alongside a similar one in the Houston area that bagged a thousand illegal aliens.
From 4 May to 10 May, officers from the House Enforcement and Removal Operations office arrested 411 illegal aliens, many of whom were also convicted criminals, including a murderer, a drug dealer and a pedophile.
Enforcement and Removal Operations officers also aided in the deportation of 528 illegals during that same period.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has moved to beef up the numbers of immigration-enforcement agents.
At the beginning of the month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requested help from tens of thousands of National Guardsmen.
The DHS has asked for 20,000 National Guardsmen “to help carry out the President’s mandate from the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens,” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokeswoman, confirmed.
“The Department of Homeland Security will use every tool and resource available to get criminal illegal aliens including gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and other violent criminals out of our country. The safety of American citizens comes first,” she said.
President Trump was elected on a promise to carry out the “largest mass deportation operation in American history.”