Federal Arrests Target ‘Fugitive Aliens’ (Chicago Public Radio)

Federal Arrests Target ‘Fugitive Aliens’
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A four-day immigration operation in Illinois and Indiana led to the arrest of 144 people.

Produced by Chip Mitchell on Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it made the arrests in Chicago, 13 suburbs and five northern Indiana towns. ICE says the targets were fugitive aliens. That’s what the agency calls undocumented residents who missed immigration hearings or failed to obey a deportation order.

MEHLMAN: This is exactly what ICE should be doing.

Ira Mehlman works for a pro-enforcement group called the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

MEHLMAN: You have hundreds of thousands of people, all around the country, who have been through the process and have simply absconded.

But Fred Tsao of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights says the operation won’t just affect those arrested.

TSAO: Very often they have families that include U.S.-citizen spouses, U.S.-citizen children. They’re members of their communities. They have jobs.

Federal officials say arrests like these have helped reduce the nation’s fugitive-alien population over the last two years.

I’m Chip Mitchell, Chicago Public Radio.