More than 2,400 convicted foreign nationals were arrested by officials during a nationwide seven-day operation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said on Tuesday.
The "Cross Check" enforcement operation, conducted in May, detained individuals convicted for crimes such as armed robbery, drug trafficking, child abuse, sexual crimes against minors, aggravated assault, theft, forgery and DUI, an ICE statement said.
"The results of this operation underscore ICE's ongoing focus on arresting those convicted criminal aliens who prey upon our communities, and tracking down fugitives who game our nation's immigration system," ICE Director John Morton said in the statement.
Twenty-two percent of those taken into custody were immigration fugitives who had already had outstanding orders of deportation.
ICE has removed a record number of criminal foreign nationals this year, according to the agency: more than 109,700 in fiscal year 2011.
Some detainees will head home on a one-way flight, but for others there will be a much longer process..
Those arressted were divided into three basic categories: fugitives who had outstanding deportation orders against them, those who already had been deported and illegally re-entered the U.S., and at-large convicted criminals, Fox News reports.
The first two groups will be deported. The third group would face "removal proceedings," Fox reported, where a judge would have say over whether they are deported or receive some assistance to stay in the U.S.
"They're afforded due process," a federal immigration official told Fox.
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