September 26, 2007

Memphis hosts new ICE Fugitive Operations Team
72 teams now locate and arrest more than 1,000 illegal aliens a week around the country

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has created a Fugitive Operations team based in Memphis to locate, arrest and remove aliens who have committed crimes or who failed to comply with court orders to leave the United States.

ICE Fugitive Operations teams have federal authorities and nationwide jurisdiction. Though based in specific area offices, the teams can be deployed to conduct operations anywhere fugitive aliens are located in the United States. The teams use intelligence-based information and leads to find and arrest aliens who have ignored a judge's order or otherwise broken the law.

"The United States is a land of opportunity, but it is also a nation of laws," said Trey Lund, Field Office Director in New Orleans, who oversees the Memphis Fugitive Operations team. "The addition of these new fugitive teams increases ICE's ability to aggressively pursue those who have no respect for our laws. Our teams nationally have stopped the growth of the fugitive population and effected the first decrease in the number of fugitives since ICE was created in 2003."

The teams prioritize their efforts to arrest fugitive and other illegal aliens according to public safety criteria and other factors. Of the more than 61,533 illegal aliens apprehended by ICE Fugitive Operations teams since the first teams were created in 2003, roughly 17,331 had convictions for crimes that have included homicide, sexual exploitation of children, robbery, violent assault, narcotics trafficking and other aggravated felonies.

By the end of this month, a total of 75 Fugitive Operations teams are scheduled to be operational nationwide. The Administration's FY2008 proposed budget would allow ICE to deploy an additional six teams. The Fugitive Operations teams already in operation are collectively apprehending more than 1,000 illegal aliens a week. ICE Fugitive Operations teams are assigned to local offices of ICE Detention and Removal Operations, which often have responsibility for more than one state. Some regional and local offices have more than one team.

The goal of the fugitive operations program is to eliminate the backlog of immigration fugitives in this country and ensure that deportation orders handed down by immigration judges are enforced. ICE's databases show the targeted enforcement strategy is paying off. Earlier this year, the nation's fugitive alien population showed its first-ever decline. Estimates now place the number of immigration fugitives in the United States at slightly under 600,000.

Much of the credit for those results can be attributed to the rapid expansion of the program. When the initiative was first launched in 2003, there were 17 fugitive operations teams nationwide. The Memphis team is the 72nd.

The Fugitive Operations teams are a crucial part of ICE's interior enforcement strategy. The interior enforcement strategy is part of the Secure Border Initiative (SBI), which is the Department of Homeland Security's comprehensive, multi-year plan to secure America's borders and reduce illegal migration. SBI's border security efforts are focused on gaining operational control of the nation's borders through additional personnel and technology while streamlining the detention and removal system to ensure that illegal aliens are removed from the country quickly.

The interior enforcement strategy is expanding efforts to target immigration violators inside this country, employers of illegal aliens, as well as the many criminal networks that support these activities.

-- 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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