harrisonsdream
12-05-2007, 11:34 AM
Immigration doubles fugitive arrests in 2007
By HERNÁN ROZEMBERG
San Antonio Express-News
Bulked up with additional manpower and better investigative tools, immigration agents in South and Central Texas — paralleling a national trend — nabbed an unprecedented number of criminal immigrants on the lam this year.
The San Antonio office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday that it caught 1,326 fugitive immigrants wanted for crimes such as assault, rape and gang violence in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30.
That's a more than sevenfold increase from fiscal 2006, when the agency rounded up 176 wanted immigrants. In North Texas and Oklahoma, the number of arrests more than doubled to 1,635.
"It was a big jump," said Marc Moore, in charge of ICE's detention and deportation operations for the San Antonio office, which encompasses all of South Texas down to the border and as far north as Temple.
San Antonio's ramp-up mirrored the national picture: While 15,462 arrests were made in fiscal 2006, the count nearly doubled to 30,408 this year.
Moore attributed the change in South Texas to the addition of two "fugitive operation teams" in the region.
Improved technology has also helped. An information center in Vermont constantly supplies agents in the field with information to help track down and arrest suspects, he said.
By HERNÁN ROZEMBERG
San Antonio Express-News
Bulked up with additional manpower and better investigative tools, immigration agents in South and Central Texas — paralleling a national trend — nabbed an unprecedented number of criminal immigrants on the lam this year.
The San Antonio office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday that it caught 1,326 fugitive immigrants wanted for crimes such as assault, rape and gang violence in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30.
That's a more than sevenfold increase from fiscal 2006, when the agency rounded up 176 wanted immigrants. In North Texas and Oklahoma, the number of arrests more than doubled to 1,635.
"It was a big jump," said Marc Moore, in charge of ICE's detention and deportation operations for the San Antonio office, which encompasses all of South Texas down to the border and as far north as Temple.
San Antonio's ramp-up mirrored the national picture: While 15,462 arrests were made in fiscal 2006, the count nearly doubled to 30,408 this year.
Moore attributed the change in South Texas to the addition of two "fugitive operation teams" in the region.
Improved technology has also helped. An information center in Vermont constantly supplies agents in the field with information to help track down and arrest suspects, he said.