U.S. immigration authorities announced 31 people were arrested for violating immigration laws in a five-day spree of arrests in the New York City area.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, only targeted "criminal aliens" who pose a public safety threat, said Thomas Decker, ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations director for New York.

“With the misinformation and misrepresentation about ICE, we continue to focus of the truth of our priority, which is to target and arrest criminal aliens to remove them off the streets in the interest of public safety,” Decker said.

Agents led the immigration crackdown earlier this week in New York City, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley.

The arrests were focused on individuals with criminal convictions or pending charges for removal from the United States.

Of the 31 arrested, more than two dozen were convicted criminals or had pending criminal charges, officials said. Nearly all of those arrested had been ordered to leave the U.S., but had failed to do so, or had been previously deported.

The agency said some of those arrested could face federal criminal prosecutions for illegal reentry after being removed from the United States.