WASHINGTON - Federal immigration authorities apprehended 121 adults and children in raids over the New Year's weekend as part of a nationwide operation to deport a new wave of undocumented immigrants, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced on Monday.

WASHINGTON � Federal immigration authorities apprehended 121 adults and children in raids over the New Year�s weekend as part of a nationwide operation to deport a new wave of undocumented immigrants, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced on Monday.

The families taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were living in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina, Johnson said in a statement. They are being held temporarily in federal detention centers before being deported to Central America.

�As I have said repeatedly, our borders are not open to illegal migration,� Johnson said. �If you come here illegally, we will send you back, consistent with our laws and values.�

The raids were the first in a broad operation by the Obama administration that is targeting for deportation hundreds of families who have crossed the southern border illegally in the past year. The operation, first reported by The Washington Post, is the first large-scale effort to deport families fleeing violence in Central America, authorities said.

Homeland Security officials declined on Monday to say how many children were among those apprehended, where they were found and their countries of origin. The operation is targeting only people, including children, who have already been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge, officials familiar with the raids have said.

Asked about the removal operations, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said that the administration has �prioritized the cases of recent arrivals � individuals who recently crossed the border without proper documentation. That is the nature of the operations carried out in the last several days.�

Earnest said the efforts are �consistent with the priorities the president himself talked about, deporting felons, not families, with a focus on individuals who only recently crossed the border."