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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made 20 arrests in Utah as part of a weeklong national dragnet that snagged 2,900 undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds.
The Salt Lake City arrests included a 32-year-old Bosnian man with multiple criminal convictions, including attempted aggravated robbery, prohibited possession of a firearm and possession of drug paraphernalia. ICE, however, did not provide specific information Wednesday about the offenses committed by the others arrested in Utah.
Immigrant advocates and some researchers have complained in recent years that ICE too often removes immigrants who have committed trivial offenses. On Wednesday, Steven Branch, field office director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations in Salt Lake City, said Operation Cross Check targeted alleged fugitives and "egregious immigration law violators."
"Because of the hard work and focus of ICE officers and agents in Utah tracking down at-large criminal aliens and fugitives, there are 20 fewer criminal aliens in our neighborhoods across the state," Branch said.
Branch said most of the arrests in Utah took place along the Wasatch Front, with 10 of them within Salt Lake City.
All of the 2,901 suspects nationwide had prior criminal convictions, ICE officials said. More than 1,600 of those arrested had felony convictions, including manslaughter, attempted murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, drug trafficking, child abuse, sexual crimes against minors, aggravated assault.
In addition to being convicted criminals, 681 of those arrested were also immigration fugitives who had previously been ordered to leave the country but failed to leave.