Authorities arrest nearly 90 in South Florida in immigration sweep (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Authorities arrest nearly 90 in South Florida in immigration sweep

By Sofia Santana, Sun Sentinel
9:26 p.m. EDT, April 30, 2010

Authorities this week arrested nearly 90 foreign nationals in South Florida they say were convicted criminals who now will be speedily deported, or convicts who were otherwise in the United States illegally.

The sweep, led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was part of the largest operation targeting illegal immigrants ever conducted in the southeastern United States, officials said.

Two dozen of the arrests were in Broward County, 11 were in Palm Beach County, 48 in Miami-Dade County and five in the Florida Keys, authorities said.

The arrests were among 258 made statewide and in Puerto Rico, with most of those arrested slated for immediate deporation or an appearance before a U.S. immigration judge.

Atlanta ICE Field Director Felicia Skinner said that "communities around the Southeast are safer than they were before" as a result. She said three of the people arrested had been previously convicted of murder and 144 of assault charges.

At least a dozen of the arrestees face additional federal charges because they had been convicted of a crime in the United States and deported, but then re-entered this country illegally, officials said.

One of them is Jose Oscar Avalo-Molina, of El Salvador, who authorities say was convicted of first-degree murder in the United States, served a 20-year sentence and was deported in 1997. Sometime afterward, he returned to this country illegally, authorities said.

He was arrested Wednesday in Pembroke Park.

The federal crime of felony re-entry into the United States carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.