SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP)  Border Patrol agents working about 100 miles north of the Mexican border say they have been given arrest quotas at odds with agency practices and threatened with punishment if they failed to meet the number.

Agents stationed in Riverside reported being ordered to make at least 150 arrests of suspected illegal immigrants in January, two of which must lead to prosecutions, said Lombardo Amaya, president of Local 2554 of the National Border Patrol Council.

“They were told if you don’t produce this, we will have to change your weekends off,” Mr. Amaya said, adding that he would discuss the matter Monday with the sector chief. “Sometimes, like in politics, this agency is about looking good.”

An agency spokesman in Washington, Lloyd Easterling, said quotas ran counter to agency practice, which does not set a minimum number of arrests.