Arrests in Sioux Falls, SW Minnesota target people ordered to leave U.S.
Josh Verges • jverges@argusleader.com • March 4, 2008
Immigration agents in Sioux Falls last week arrested 13 people in a targeted effort to remove those who ignored judges' orders to leave the country.
An additional 23 were arrested Feb. 26 to Feb. 28 in Worthington and Pipestone, Minn., Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Tim Counts said.
The investigation targeted 13 people who fit one of two categories: they were granted voluntary removal status in lieu of deportation but then failed to leave by a certain date, or they ran after being mailed a judgment telling them to show up for deportation.
Sioux Falls immigration lawyer Henry Evans said deportation will be automatic in those cases.
While looking for the 13, ICE agents discovered and arrested 23 other immigration violators.
Counts said the arrests followed extensive investigation and were not random.
"We do not just roam the streets looking for illegal aliens," he said.
Six of the arrested have low-level criminal convictions in addition to status violations. Thirty-one are from Guatemala, one from Honduras and two each from Mexico and El Salvador.
The sweep came a week after four children died when their Cottonwood, Minn., school bus collided with a van driven by Olga Franco, a suspected illegal immigrant from Guatemala. Counts said the timing of the ICE roundup is coincidental.
Reach Josh Verges at 331-2335.
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