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WISCONSIN - An immigration raid authorities are calling the Midwest's largest, has netted 24 arrests in Northeast Wisconsin.

The three day operation, known as operation "Cross Check Midwest" wrapped up Thursday.

It targeted known criminals who are also here illegally.

"This is a very large operation and it is indicative of what ICE is focusing its efforts on," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Gail Montenegro said. "We're going after convicted criminals who have no right to be in this country and on top of that are committing crimes and threatening public safety."

Immigration and customs agents made arrests in ten states, including Wisconsin, where authorities took people into custody in eight counties: Brown, Calumet, Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Oconto, Outagamie and Waupaca.

"They are trafficking in drugs, they belong to gangs, they are sexually abusing a minor, they're battering a spouse," Montenegro explained.

Of the 370 arrested in the sweep, 347 have a prior criminal conviction.

They include nine gang members and 16 convicted sex offenders.

"We want to use every tool in our tool belt to make sure that we can take those people off the streets and an immigration violation is just such a tool," Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said. "So we're taking the worst of the worst off our streets using a tool that we don't have available for everyone else."

Local law enforcement agencies including the Lake Winnebago MEG unit assisted in the raids. Members of the unit couldn't comment on the operation, but say it involved four of its investigators.

Immigration and Customs agents won't release the names of those arrested. However, they offered one example of a local arrest made this Wednesday.

"We arrested a Mexican national in Chilton who has a number of convictions for illegal transportation of aliens, cocaine possession and operating while intoxicated," Montenegro said.

Authorities say he has already been deported once and will now face federal prosecution.

As for the others arrested, some will be removed from the country within the week. Others will receive a hearing before an immigration judge.

They hail from 56 different countries, including nations in Latin America, Europe, the Caribbean and the Middle East.

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The arrests in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska were part of the agency's "Cross Check" operations that began in 2009 and are being held across the country.

"We are doing more than ever to prevent people from coming here illegally and we're doing more than ever to focus on those criminal aliens who are threatening our public safety," said Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for ICE's Chicago, Illinois, office.

Of the 370 people arrested this week, more than half of them had prior convictions for serious violent crimes such as armed robbery, drug trafficking and aggravated assault.

"These are crimes that have been committed here in the United States," Montenegro told CNN Radio. "They have criminal convictions for criminal conduct that they have committed here in the United States.

"We used a number of different leads," she said. "We tracked individuals with information we had available in our databases. We worked with other law enforcement and used information they had as well to develop our target lists."

Some of those arrested were affiliated with gangs or convicted of sexual crimes against minors. More than 50 were immigration fugitives who had outstanding deportation orders, the agency said.

The operation, which ended Thursday, was the largest of its kind for the agency, according to ICE.

"ICE is focused on arresting convicted criminals who prey upon our communities, and tracking down fugitives who scoff at our nation's immigration laws," ICE Director John Morton said in a statement. "The results of this operation demonstrate ICE's commitment to those principles."

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Those arrested were legal immigrants with convictions that made them eligible for deportation; illegal immigrants who had been convicted of other crimes; immigration fugitives wanted for being in the country illegally, and people who had been deported and come back.

"These are not people we want freely roaming our streets," said John Morton, director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, said at a news conference in the Loop.

The operation involving local law enforcement and federal agencies ended Thursday. Arrests were made in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Ohio, officials said.

Those arrested were from more than 50 countries, including Iraq, India, Kenya, Syria, Togo, Bosnia, Canada and Vietnam, and some had been convicted of crimes involving drugs and sexual offenses, ICE officials said. It was the latest in a series of similar enforcement operations ICE has been conducting nationwide since last year.

"We will not tolerate those who come here unlawfully and take to a life of crime," Morton said.

Darryl McPherson, U.S. marshal for the northern district of Illinois, said there are often misconceptions about enforcement actions. "We don't target individuals, we target crimes. We pursue fugitives for the crimes they commit, not for the gender or race they represent," McPherson said.

Speaking on another matter, Morton said ICE has dismissed some immigration cases involving people who were eligible for immigration benefits such as asylum or a green card or who were married to an American citizen. He said a review of such cases was going on nationwide.

"It's a waste of government resources to pursue an immigration removal proceeding against somebody who's likely going to be granted a benefit to stay in the country," he said.

He dismissed the suggestion the measure was any type of backdoor amnesty.

AP

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The immigrants — 339 men and 31 women — were from 56 countries, including Mexico, Canada and Ukraine. Some were legal residents whose criminal convictions made them deportable. Others were in the country illegally.

Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said the Obama administration is focusing on arresting and deporting dangerous felons, which he argues is a good shift from deporting immigrant workers who are not dangerous.

"What 87 percent of people in the Chicago area believe is that we need an immigration reform that allows immigrant workers who are not criminals to become legal and that way we can stop destroying families," said Hoyt, citing a statistic from a recent Tribune/WGN poll on immigration issues.

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ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy

Are you trying to make a point or have you caught the "mindless links" disease?

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ORIGINAL: tazzygirl

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ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy

Are you trying to make a point or have you caught the "mindless links" disease?

Obviously you posted without reading... yet again.

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Cant one news agency just report all the facts?

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The immigrants — 339 men and 31 women — were from 56 countries, including Mexico, Canada and Ukraine.

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Those arrested were from more than 50 countries, including Iraq, India, Kenya, Syria, Togo, Bosnia, Canada and Vietnam, and some had been convicted of crimes involving drugs and sexual offenses, ICE officials said. It was the latest in a series of similar enforcement operations ICE has been conducting nationwide since last year.

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Of the 370 arrested in the sweep, 347 have a prior criminal conviction.

They include nine gang members and 16 convicted sex offenders

"We arrested a Mexican national in Chilton who has a number of convictions for illegal transportation of aliens, cocaine possession and operating while intoxicated," Montenegro said.

Authorities say he has already been deported once and will now face federal prosecution.

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More than 50 were immigration fugitives who had outstanding deportation orders, the agency said.

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From the OP. What proof do you have that the "majority" were mexican?

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370 arrests by Ice in three days. And i had to go to more than one source to find out all the information. Cant one news agency just report all the facts?