ICE arrests 38 in Lake County (Lake County News-Sun)

ICE arrests 38 in Lake County
Four-day initiative targets immigration violators

September 18, 2008
By RYAN PAGELOW
rpagelow@scn1.com

Federal authorities arrested 38 immigration violators in Lake County this week as part of a Chicagoland area sweep led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The four-day initiative targeted illegal immigrants who failed to appear for their immigration hearings or who ignored deportation orders.

Starting last Friday, ICE agents arrested 144 people in the Chicago area and northern Indiana. Of those arrested, 110 had orders of deportation, and 34 were undocumented immigrants that ICE officers encountered during their targeted arrests.

Of the 144 arrested, 38 were from Lake County, including 20 from Waukegan, four from Libertyville, three from Gurnee, three from Round Lake, three from Grayslake, three from Zion, one from Beach Park and one from North Chicago, according to Gail Montenegro, an ICE spokeswoman.

Those arrested in Lake County during the four-day operation ending Monday, included 19 Mexicans, six Hondurans, five Russians, two Pakistanis and one foreign national from each of the following countries, India, China, El Salvador, Nigeria, Belize and the Philippines.

Although they were arrested for administrative violations, not criminal violations, some did also have prior criminal histories that included domestic battery, DUI and theft, Montenegro said.

ICE established its Fugitive Operations Program in 2003 to reduce the nation's backlog of immigration fugitives which is estimated to be about 570,000.

"ICE uses all the tools and resources at our disposal to locate fugitives who show a blatant disregard for our nation's immigration laws," said ICE Field Office Director Glenn Triveline in Chicago.

The U.S. Marshals Service Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force assisted ICE in this enforcement action.