Target rich environment.
Via Daily Mail:
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have rounded up more than 200 people for violating immigration laws during a five-day sweep in the Los Angeles area, which sparked a protest on Thursday.
In addition to arresting 212 undocumented immigrants, federal agents also served more than 100 notices to local businesses that they will be audited to determine whether they are employing people who are in the country illegally.
The raids triggered a demonstration by a small group of immigration advocates chanting ‘stop the deportations’ who blocked a Homeland Security van from entering the federal Metropolitan Detention Center.
Police were called in and issued a dispersal order but no one was arrested.
A statement from the agency said that 88 per cent of the 212 people arrested in the sweep were convicted criminals. The remaining 12 per cent were non-criminals.
More than half had prior felony convictions for serious or violent offenses, such as child sex crimes, weapons charges, and assault, or had past convictions for significant or multiple misdemeanors.
‘Because sanctuary jurisdictions like Los Angeles prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, our officers are forced to conduct at-large arrests in the community, putting officers, the general public and the aliens at greater risk and increasing the incidents of collateral arrests,’ said ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan.