[SanDiegoUnionTribune] Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers working out of the San Diego field office arrested 115 unauthorized immigrants over a large, three-day operation that ended Thursday, officials said.
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Though the field office covers both San Diego and Imperial counties, all but seven of the arrests were in San Diego County. Though arrests happened in cities across the county, many were concentrated in North County, according to Greg Archambeault, field officer director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Diego.
Officers from other parts of the country came to San Diego to help locate and arrest a targeted list of people who had criminal convictions or had been arrested on criminal charges, had been ordered deported by an immigration judge or had returned to the U.S. after being deported, Archambeault said.
"Operations like this reflect the vital work ERO officers do every day to protect the nation, uphold public safety and protect the integrity of our immigration laws and border controls," Archambeault said. "We will continue to conduct similar operations, while seeking to ultimately deport at-large criminal targets and other immigration fugitives who pose a threat to public safety."
Though reports of large-scale arrests have surfaced to much political controversy since President Donald Trump took office, this is the first such operation that the San Diego field office has publicized during his administration.
"We've done it under different administrations," Archambeault explained. "It's nothing new doing a large-scale operation, but we haven't had one here for some time."
It was coincidental that the operation started on the day of the president's visit to San Diego, he said.
The majority of those arrested were from Mexico, and other arrests included citizens of Honduras, Guatemala, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and Peru.