U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had a big week, arresting nearly 3,000 undocumented immigrants with criminal records in a nationwide operation called "Cross Check." The "massive" crackdown is the largest such sweep yet, according to ICE Director John Morton. It's also the most visible consequence of the Obama administration's August decision to focus ICE's limited resources on illegal immigrants with serious criminal histories instead of those whose only crime was entering the U.S. without permission. "This is what we should be doing; this is good law enforcement," said Morton. Here's a look at who ICE rounded up, by the numbers:
11 million
Estimated number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S.
1 million
Number of those believed to have criminal records
2,901
Number of arrests in the ICE sweep
1,282
Number of arrestees with multiple prior criminal convictions, dating back to the 1980s
1,600
Number of arrestees with at least one felony conviction
151
Number of arrestees who are convicted sex offenders
681
Number of arrestees who had already been ordered to leave the U.S. but hadn't
386
Number of arrestees who had already been deported several times
20
Maximum penalty, in years, for illegally re-entering the U.S.
1,900
Number of ICE agents involved in the raid
50
Number of states where arrests occurred
4,506
Number of illegal immigrants arrested in all previous Cross Check operations since December 2009
285,526
Number of cases awaiting resolution in U.S. immigration courts, as of July 2011
8.3
Percentage of those cases involving serious criminal charges, according to Syracuse University researchers
90
Percentage of those cases involving only immigration violations
490
Average wait, in days, for those cases to go to trial
Sources: AP, ICE, Los Angeles Times, TRAC Immigration, VOA
