Federal authorities finishing a two-state immigration sweep announced this week that one fourth of the 79 illegals arrested were found in a single Michigan county, and all of them had a criminal record.
With 21 arrested, Kent County, Michigan had more illegals arrested than any other county in the targeted area, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials reported on Thursday.
ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said that all of the 79 foreign nationals taken into custody were illegal immigrants and all but one had prior criminal convictions.
Officials said they were focusing on illegals who pose a threat to public safety. About one third of those arrested in the sweep through 26 counties in Ohio and Michigan had felony convictions for serious offenses such as child sex crimes, drugs and weapons charges, and violent offenses.
53 of those arrested were from Mexico.
The next most arrests, 15, came from Franklin County, Ohio.
In 2014 ICE arrested and removed 315,943 criminal aliens from the U.S.
But as recently as July the Obama administration reported that it intended to cut down on the number of illegals deported.
The change comes on the heels of a new study released by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) that insists that its policy suggestions would help identify the proper “priorities” for deportations. The new policy would effectively make the entire USA a “sanctuary city” of sorts for millions of illegals who will now be given a pass on deportation should they be apprehended by local or federal authorities.
In fact, MPI noted that the new guidelines would give 87 percent of the illegal population “a degree of protection” from deportation. That is an increase from the 74 percent who were given such “protection” with Obama’s earlier policy.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.