Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials took 244 people into custody, most of whom were in the country illegally and had at least one felony conviction, over a four-day sweep, the
Los Angeles Times reports.
"One of the challenges we're facing is because of state law and local policies, more individuals who are potentially deportable with significant criminal histories are being released onto the street instead of being turned over to ICE," spokeswoman Virginia Kice told the Times.
The sweep was one of the agency's most successful, but Kice said no one should infer that crime is up among foreign nationals.
ICE previously asked local jails to hold suspects it was looking for until the agency could pick them up, but a federal court ruling last year said the practice was illegal.
Of those taken into custody, most – 191 – were from Mexico. The others were from 21 other countries, including France, Ghana, Peru and Thailand. Not all were in the country illegally, but are to be deported because they committed a crime.
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