One man allegedly tried to choke his girlfriend because he thought she was cheating. Another broke into an East Austin home and took an iPod, a 42-inch flat-screen TV and — for reasons clear perhaps only to him — a wheelbarrow. And in a third case, a witness told police that, after months of physical abuse, a boyfriend had threatened to kill her mother.

These are a few of the men with violent pasts who were apprehended in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s most recent sweep of the Austin area from March 20-31. At least 13 of the 24 people detained had a previous criminal history other than living in the country illegally, according to background searches and court records, which revealed a combined 17 convictions for drunken driving, seven for family violence, and six involving illegal drugs.

One defendant, Jorge Antonio Castellanos, has three convictions for assault of a family member — including punching his girlfriend’s daughter in the face because she didn’t invite him to join the family at a carnival — and four for drunken driving.

Another defendant, Gregorio Cabrera-Avalos of Tamaulipas, was arrested by Austin police on March 19 after he allegedly threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend. A witness told police the man yelled, "Let’s go outside. That’s where I’m going to kill you." He was charged with making a terroristic threat of family violence and also failure to identify for allegedly lying to police about his birth date.

The percentage of criminals produced by the recent immigration enforcement action — about one-half — represents a slight increase from a February sweep that netted 23 of 51 persons with a previous criminal history. Facing public criticism for nabbing many noncriminals in February’s Operation Cross Check, ICE officials continue to call the operations part of the agency’s routine work.

In the past, deportation proceedings in Travis County have largely been prompted by an arrest that led to immigration checks. But in the two enforcement actions this year, ICE officials were out in the community, pulling people over or appearing at their homes and taking them in — a change that has been linked to tougher immigration policies enacted by President Donald Trump.

Homeland Security Department officials have said the operations are aimed at deporting violent criminals who are in the country illegally.

In the two confirmed Austin-area operations this year, ICE has detained 75 people, including 36 who have been convicted of crimes in the past. ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said the agency objects to the terms "raids" and "sweeps" for the enforcement actions because he believes those terms infer randomness. He says "all ICE operations are targeted based on investigative leads."

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While the agency has denied that the operations are anything more than routine, a U.S. magistrate judge in Austin has said ICE officials told him in a meeting that Travis County is being targeted because of Sheriff Sally Hernandez’s new policy to greatly limit cooperation with ICE.

ICE has declined to release the names and criminal histories of the immigrants arrested in the enforcement actions. The American-Statesman has identified them through federal court records, then researched their criminal histories with records from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The newspaper’s analysis, therefore, doesn’t include any past convictions from other states. Immigrant activists have criticized both the Trump and Obama administrations for deporting tens of thousands of people charged with relatively minor crimes.

According to the data, of the 36 people with criminal convictions, 15 were convicted of drunken driving, three for assault and two for sexual offenses involving children. The data also revealed multiple convictions for drug possession and drug trafficking. ICE has said it picked up a convicted murderer in the February sweep, but the Statesman has been unable to identify that person through criminal record searches.

Yet, the majority of people — 39 of the 75 — are noncriminals, a disparity that has prompted protests and raised concerns from community leaders, including Austin Mayor Steve Adler, about the sweeps wrecking families. In February, Adler released a statement that referred to "fear" and "panic" in the community.