East Texas

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

More than 100 illegal aliens who have failed to comply with deportation orders were rounded up this week in East Texas.

Carl Rusnok, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement public information officer, said that a fugitive operation team targeted aliens who had been ordered deported to their native countries by a federal immigration judge but refused to comply.

Officials arrested 136 people in Tyler, Longview, Kilgore, Athens, Big Sandy, Lindale, Malakoff, Grand Saline, Mineola, Van, Flint, Gilmer, Pittsburg, Canton, Wills Point, Yantis and Glendale in the sweep that began Sunday and concluded on Wednesday, he said.

The illegal immigrants will be removed from the United States and sent to their native countries of El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Ghana, Guatemala and Honduras.

As of today, 109 of the illegal immigrants were returned to Mexico, 20 were in custody at an ICE facility in West Texas and seven were released in East Texas for various reasons, either on their own recognizance or under an order of supervision, which requires them to report regularly to ICE.

Rusnok said the names of the aliens arrested would not be released.

There are 75 fugitive operation teams around the nation which are dedicated to targeting the illegal aliens, he said.

The teams were established in 2003 to expand ICE’s efforts to locate, arrest and remove fugitives from the country. The teams give top priority to cases involving aliens who pose a threat to national security and community safety, including members of transnational street gangs, child sex offenders, and aliens with prior convictions for violent crimes, according to the Web site www.ice.gov.