ICE fugitive operations teams arrest 38 absconders, illegal aliens in Wisconsin

MILWAUKEE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Fugitive Operations Team arrested 38 fugitive aliens and immigration violators in southeast Wisconsin area during a five-day initiative that ended Tuesday night.

"Fugitive aliens" are illegal aliens who fail to appear for their immigration hearings, or they abscond after having been ordered to leave the country by a federal immigration judge.

During the five-day operation, which ended June 24, ICE Fugitive Operations Team members arrested illegal aliens in Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine counties. Sixteen of those arrested were fugitives; 22 were immigration violators encountered by ICE officers during their targeted arrests.

The ICE office in Chicago oversees a six-state area that includes: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri and Kentucky. During the same five days, Fugitive Teams in Chicago and Kansas City, Mo., arrested 43 and 48 illegal aliens, respectively. Of the 91 arrests, 41 were fugitives and 50 were immigration violators encountered by ICE officers during their targeted arrests. Forty-seven of the 91 had criminal convictions in addition to their administrative immigration violations.

"It's important for us to send a strong message to anyone who ignores deportation orders handed down by federal immigration judges," said Glenn Triveline, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Chicago. "ICE uses all the tools and resources at our disposal to locate criminal and illegal aliens and return them home."

Those arrested are from the following countries: Albania, China, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.

Through May 31 of fiscal year 2008, which began Oct. 1, 2007, 1,167 illegal aliens were arrested by Fugitive Teams in the six-state area covered by the Chicago ICE office. Of the total, 951 were fugitive aliens; 216 were immigration violators encountered by the ICE Fugitive Operations Teams during their targeted arrests. Of the 1,167 apprehended, 164 had criminal convictions in addition to their administrative immigration violations. In all of fiscal year 2006, Fugitive Operations Teams in the six-state area arrested 1,043 aliens.