ICE arrests 75 people in Michigan and Ohio in 1 week

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 75 people in Michigan and Ohio in a weeklong operation, officials announced.

About 70% of the 75 foreign nationals arrested from Feb. 1 to 7 by ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) had prior arrests and/or criminal convictions, said ICE in a release Tuesday. Their crimes range from cocaine possession, homicide, gang membership with MS-13, domestic violence, assault, criminal sexual conduct and larceny, among others.

“ICE officers are first and foremost focused on removing criminal aliens from the community,” said Rebecca Adducci, field office director in Detroit of ICE ERO in Michigan and Ohio. The Detroit office of ICE oversees Michigan and Ohio.

ICE said the arrests are part of their "ongoing enforcement efforts in Michigan and Ohio targeting at-large criminal aliens, illegal re-entrants and other immigration violators."

Michigan has the second highest rate of ICE arrests among all states in the U.S. with at least 100,000 undocumented immigrants, the Free Press reported last year. Ohio has the third highest.

The arrests in Michigan include:

In Detroit, a 53-year-old citizen of Honduras who has drunken driving convictions.

In Sterling Heights, Michigan, a 55-year-old citizen of Iraq, who has convictions for larceny, and various drug crimes related to cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana.

In Wyoming, Michigan, a 52-year-old citizen of Mexico who has convictions for possession of cocaine and drunken driving.

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In Ohio, the arrests included a MS-13 gang member in Galloway who authorities in El Salvador had arrested for organized terrorism and aggravated homicide, and a 41-year-old Serbian citizen in Warren convicted of carjacking.

ICE said the people arrested were nationals of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Jamaica, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tunisia.

“I applaud the dedicated men and women of ICE and our partners who work tirelessly to keep our communities safe, often in the face of great personal danger," said Adducci of ICE.

ERO officers were helped by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Border Patrol during the operations in Michigan and Ohio, said ICE.

Across the nation, about 86% of ERO's arrests in Fiscal Year 2019 were of people who had either a criminal conviction or were facing criminal charges, said ICE.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or 313-223-4792. Twitter @nwarikoo