Alien fugitives & immigration violators arrested

... some Ghanaians busted
NEWARK, NJ, USA -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today announced the successful completion of a three-week targeted law enforcement operation in New Jersey that resulted in the arrest of 217 immigration violators and alien fugitives, including 37 with criminal records.

As part of "Operation Return to Sender", a nationwide ICE program to reduce illegal immigration, ICE Fugitive Operation Teams (FOTs) fanned out across the Garden state to arrest priority criminal and fugitive aliens. ICE has three fugitive operation teams in New Jersey.

From April 9 to April 27, ICE officers arrested 75 fugitives. The other 142 people apprehended were aliens illegally present in the United States. The individuals arrested during the three-week statewide operation came from the following 32 countries: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia.

"For ICE, removing criminal and fugitive aliens from our streets and neighborhoods is a agency-wide initiative that improves our national security and combats the rise in local crime rates," said acting field office director Bartolome Rodriguez, who leads ICE's detention and removal efforts in Newark. "Our Fugitive Operation Teams work closely with local law enforcement partners throughout the year identifying dangerous criminal aliens and placing them in removal proceedings."

Criminal convictions among those arrested include sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence, theft, criminal mischief, weapons charges, counterfeit credit cards, identity theft, burglary, possession of drugs with the intent to distribute, terroristic threats, patronizing prostitution, aggravated assault, and driving under the influence. Highlighted arrests include:

• David Monroy-Garcia, a 34-year-old Mexican national arrested for punching and kicking his pregnant girl's stomach in an attempt to kill their unborn baby. The baby survived. Monroy-Garcia is convicted of terroristic threats.

• Wen Tuan Wu, a 38-year-old Chinese national arrested in Atlantic City for felony theft of moveable property.

• Edgar Gomez Romero, a 32-year-old Mexican national convicted of assault, burglary and criminal mischief.

• Wesley Stephen Retemiah, a 41-year-old Guyanan national convicted of multiple drug offenses and weapons possession.

The subjects became fugitives when they defied an order from a federal immigration judge and failed to leave the United States. All of the fugitives had the opportunity for full due process under the law. The fugitives arrested will remain in ICE custody pending their final removal from the country. The other individuals arrested have been placed in immigration removal proceedings.

The New Jersey operation is part of the nationwide interior immigration enforcement strategy announced in 2005 by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and ICE Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers. A critical element of that strategy is to identify, locate and remove criminal aliens, fugitives, and other immigration violators from the United States.

The interior enforcement strategy is part of the Department of Homeland Security's broader Secure Border Initiative (SBI), a multi-year plan to secure America's borders and reduce illegal migration. Those efforts are focused on gaining operational control of the nation's borders through the deployment of additional personnel and technology, while re-engineering the detention and removal system to ensure that illegal aliens are quickly removed from the country.

Since May 26, 2006, New Jersey's Operation Return to Sender has resulted in the arrest of over 1,585 immigration violators, including 253 criminal aliens.