UPDATE Illegal Immigration

from The Columbus Dispatch

Homeland Security agents took to Ohio streets the past week, arresting 154 undocumented immigrants. The agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Detroit came heavily armed and loaded with files and warrants for deportation. They took in immigrants from 30 countries and every continent save Antarctica. Among those arrested, 82 were from Mexico, followed by 19 from El Salvador and seven from Mauritania.

The men and women had been caught entering the country illegally and were ordered to court but never showed or had been ordered deported but never left, authorities said. Twenty had been charged with crimes. One was a reputed member of the Mexican street gang MS13.

No recent event spurred the sweep.

Among those taken were immigrants who had been in the U.S. for a decade or more. They must leave homes, jobs and maybe children born here who are U.S. citizens. In all, the agents arrested 68 they’d sought and 86 they came across. The arrested were taken to the Seneca County jail; 72 Mexicans have already been flown home. Agents escorted them and handed them over to authorities in their homelands.

"Operation Return to Sender"
from KTUL Oklahoma City TV 8

A federal task force swept through Tulsa Wednesday, netting dozens of illegal immigrants. Dubbed 'Operation Return To Sender', it's being run by the Department of Homeland Security.

This was all part of Operation Return to Sender, a nationwide crackdown by US Immigration and customs enforcement to apprehend illegal aliens with federal warrants. It began May 26th and has netted over 21-hundred aliens. Today's target was Tulsa. Three passengers were off-loaded from a white van entering the sheriff's barbed wire yard when we were there. Roughly forty are expected to be taken into custody by days end. Statewide, approximately 120 illegals are earmarked for arrest. Specific crimes are unknown, but of those arrested in other states, 146 were for sex offenses, 367 for gangs, and 640 fugitives previously told to leave the US.