July 21 (UPI) — Immigration officials arrested 123 people in an eight-day sweep across Central and South Texas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday.
The agency conducted the operation between July 10-19, arresting people in Austin, Harlingen, Laredo, San Antonio and Waco.
Ninety-three of those targeted had prior criminal convictions ranging from aggravated assault to domestic violence, ICE said. The rest had immigration violations.
Among the arrested were 102 from Mexico, 13 from Honduras, five from Guatemala, and one each from El Salvador, Jamaica and Cuba. There were 115 men and eight women.
“This operation was focused on targeting immigration fugitives and criminal aliens,” Daniel Bible, field office director of Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Antonio, said in a statement. “Public safety remains a top priority for ICE. This was a focused eight-day enforcement operation over a large area, but we routinely conduct operations daily.”
President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to crack down on undocumented immigrants, focusing on those with criminal backgrounds. In May, ICE said immigration arrests increased by 37 percent since Trump took office Jan. 20.
