Immigration agents around the country rounded up more than 2,000 immigrants with criminal records in recent days and placed them in deportation proceedings. The operation netted 33 arrests in Arizona.
“Every individual who was arrested is a convicted criminal, someone who was convicted by the courts here in our state, who quite honestly we don’t want living in our communities,” said John Gurule, the Phoenix field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Critics of the Obama administration’s executive actions on immigration have said the president’s plan to let some immigrants here illegally get work permits is too lenient. But one of the administration’s recent immigration memorandums also spelled out the priority of deporting immigrants with criminal records, which is what this operation was about.
In Arizona, those arrested included 23 felons and 10 people with “significant misdemeanor” convictions, Gurule said. Their crimes included assault, domestic violence, drunk driving and drug offenses.
Gurule also said 12 individuals had been previously deported and had illegally returned to the state.