SAN DIEGO — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officers arrested 20 people with final removal orders throughout San Diego County this week, the agency announced Friday.
The five-day operation, which “focused on immigration fugitives with a final removal order and a criminal conviction(s) or a criminal charge,” concluded Thursday, according to a news release.
Eighty-five percent of those arrested during what the agency named Operation Cross Check VII had prior criminal convictions or charges, including drugs, weapons offenses, hit-and-run, driving under the influence, theft, domestic violence, evading law enforcement and fraud criminal offenses, according to the release.
In addition to those targeted in the operation, officers also arrested seven immigration violators, whom they took into ICE custody and processed for removal.
Nine major United States cities are bracing for impact following reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will move forward with an operation targeting migrant families with court-ordered removals that was previously called off in June.
The New York Times first reported on the raids, saying they are expected to take place in at least 10 cities, will occur “over multiple days” and will include “collateral” deportations in which “authorities might detain immigrants who happened to be on the scene, even though they were not targets of the raids.”
ICE had planned to arrest and deport families with court-ordered removals in 10 cities in late June, according to a senior immigration official. The raids were expected in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York and San Francisco.
