Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers with the San Diego field office arrested as many as 115 individuals over a three-day operation that ended on Thursday, according to officials. Though both Imperial and San Diego counties are covered by the field office, only seven of those arrested were outside San Diego County.
A large number of the arrests took place in North County, according to Greg Archambeault, the ICE field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Officers from elsewhere in the US joined in the operation in San Diego, aimed at a targeted list of those who were either undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions or who are facing criminal charges, had deportation orders against them, or who had illegally returned to the country after already being deported.
Archambeault says that such operations are a reflection of the crucial work done each day by ERO officers to protect the US, protect the integrity of the nation’s border controls and immigration protocols, and uphold public safety. Archambeault added that similar operations will continue to be conducted, with the aim of deporting criminal fugitives and other targets that are currently at large and threaten that safety.
There has been much political controversy over the large-scale arrests initiated under the Trump administration, but this marks the first occasion that such an event has been publicized by the San Diego field office. But, Archambeault says that similar operations have taken place before under different administrations, albeit not for some time.