Thirty-six illegal immigrants who served time in Southern California for child sex offenses and were later released instead of being deported were among more than 2,100 illegal immigrants arrested in a nationwide sweep, officials said Wednesday.
The crackdown brought into sharp focus a loophole that immigration officials said they were trying to close. Illegal immigrants who commit crimes in the United States are supposed to be deported once they finish their jail or prison terms. But instead, many remain in this country because jailers don't process them through the federal deportation system, officials said.
In addition to the nationwide sweep of so-called alien offenders, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is entering into agreements with local agencies to train jail personnel to screen and identify illegal immigrants who enter their corrections systems.
Both the Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County sheriff's departments have such agreements with federal immigration authorities, and the Orange County Sheriff's Department is seeking one.
In Los Angeles County, where a pilot program began in January, 3,155 foreign-born detainees have been interviewed by eight custody assistants, and 1,788 have been placed on hold for possible deportation, sheriff's Lt. Scott Chew said.
"I would say it's been a success," Chew said.
But with such programs in their early stages, immigration officials still rely on raids and sweeps to pick up the ex-cons and deport them.
Among the 722 illegal immigrants arrested in California in Operation Return to Sender were a Romanian national living in Anaheim who was convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, and a Tongan native, also living in Anaheim, who was convicted of sexually molesting two underage girls, immigration officials said.
"People who are in this country are in violation of the law already, but we were prioritizing criminal aliens, specifically convicted child sex offenders, because they present a very real threat," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Most of those arrested in the national sweep, which began May 26 and ended Tuesday, served time in county jails, Kice said. But instead of being deported after serving their sentences, they were released in the United States, she said.
