June 22, 2007

ICE arrests 38 aliens in Colorado and Wyoming in three-day operation
These arrests follow ICE announcement that the number of fugitive aliens dropped for the first time in U.S. history

DENVER - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that ICE agents and officers apprehended 38 criminal aliens, fugitive aliens, and other immigration status violators as part of a three-day northern Colorado and western Wyoming interior immigration enforcement operation that began June 20.

This operation follows ICE's announcement on Wednesday that it has reduced the backlog of open fugitive alien cases in the country. This is the first time this backlog has dropped. "Fugitive aliens" are illegal aliens who fail to show up for an immigration hearing or who abscond after an immigration judge orders them to leave the country.

This Colorado and Wyoming targeted enforcement initiative concluded today and is part of an ongoing nationwide operation primarily focused on criminal aliens. ICE agents and officers from Denver carried out the enforcement operation assisted by officers from various law enforcement agencies.

ICE began the northern Colorado operation Wednesday in Summit County making 17 arrests, and arrested five arrests in Sweetwater and Carbon Counties, Wyo. The operation continued Thursday and Friday, with an additional 11 arrests in Summit County and five arrests in Routt and Moffat Counties, Colo. The aliens apprehended ranged in age from 20 to 48 years old.

There were four females and 34 males arrested. Nationalities included: Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Czech Republic.

"ICE has been working aggressively to improve the systems that help us identify, target and remove fugitive aliens from the United States," said Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for ICE. "By apprehending more fugitives and reducing the number of new fugitives, we're making unprecedented progress. This turning point is truly a significant milestone, and a reflection that we're headed in the right direction, yet there is more work to be done."

Between September 2003 and September 2006, the fugitive alien population grew by an average of 5,682 fugitives per month or 68,184 new cases per year. By streamlining business practices, tripling the number of fugitive operations teams, improving intelligence and analysis, increasing available detention spaces and ending the practice of catch and release at the border, ICE has seen that growth level off for the last eight months and drop by more than 500 names in the last two months - for the first time in U.S. history. In the past two months, according to ICE's Deportable Alien Control System (DACS), there were 632,189 fugitive aliens in the United States.

ICE has been able to achieve this milestone by apprehending more fugitives in the United States and by changing practices that were creating fugitives at the border.

To apprehend more fugitive aliens, ICE implemented the following plans and programs:

• Tripled the number of Fugitive Operations Teams (FOTs), which are dedicated to identifying, locating and arresting fugitive aliens. FOTs increased from 18 in 2005 to 61 today; by the end of FY 2007, there will be 75 such teams deployed at Detention and Removal (DRO) offices throughout the United States. In FY2006, ICE removed more than 17,817 fugitive aliens from the United States. In FY2007, ICE is on the way to doubling that number.
• Opened the Fugitive Operation Support Center (FOSC) in Vermont in June 2006 to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the National Fugitive Operations Program. The FOSC reviews and updates absconder cases in DACS, develops leads for and provides assistance to the teams and aids in the development of national fugitive operations. Since its inception, the FOSC has resolved 32,725 fugitive alien cases in the system by discovering that the fugitives had been incarcerated or by verifying the fugitives' departure from the United States.
• Created the Detention Enforcement and Processing Offenders by Remote Technology (DEPORT) Center in Chicago in June 2006 to review the records of criminal aliens at federal correctional institutions run by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) under the Department of Justice. DEPORT has cleared up a backlog of criminal aliens held by the BOP. The program processes criminal aliens while they are incarcerated so that they may be removed immediately upon release, without reentering society. More than 500 individuals located in approximately 35 states are interviewed each week from the command center in the Chicago office. Aliens who are in need of hearings are assigned to hearing sites and those whose cases are complete are forwarded to an appropriate facility where the process of obtaining the necessary documents for removal can begin.

ICE put a halt to creating new fugitives by:

• Ending the practice of "catch and release" along the Southwest border in September 2006. Before that, only 34 percent of non-Mexican aliens apprehended along the border were detained.
• Expanding its detention capacity to more than 27,500 beds daily, enabling the agency to remove a record 197,000 illegal aliens from the country in FY2006.
• Increasing its use of expedited removal, a legal process that allows ICE to remove illegal aliens without a formal hearing before an immigration judge if the aliens have no credible claim to asylum or any other relief from deportation.
• Decreasing processing time - from apprehension to removal - from approximately 90 days to around 30 days, to free up detention bed space.
• ICE was created in 2003. The former Immigration and Naturalization Service did not track numbers of fugitive aliens.

Summary of three of the criminal aliens ICE agents arrested in Colorado during this week's operation:

Daniel Antonio Chinchilla-Giron was ordered removed to El Salvador by a federal immigration judge in November 2004. He was granted a deferred sentence on second-degree Felony Burglary, Domestic Violence, Invading privacy/wiretapping convictions on May 31, 2001. ICE is currently working with Summit County district attorney regarding recent sexual assault and false imprisonment charges that occurred June 18, 2007.

Julio Garcia Zurita was apprehended at his residence in Dillon, Colo., on June 20. A federal immigration judge had granted him Voluntary Departure until Oct. 17, 2003. His failure to depart the United States rendered him deportable. He has convictions for disorderly conduct for fighting in public, and possessing contraband.

Marco Antonio Palma Tamayo is a citizen and national of Mexico, and claims membership in a Surenos street gang. He has convictions in California for drunken driving and cruelty to children resulting in possible injury or death.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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