National News
Half the undocumented immigrants rounded up in February raids had no criminal records or minor offen
June 01, 2017 posted by Steve Brownstein
Approximately half of the unauthorized immigrants targeted in a set of deportation raids in February have no criminal records or traffic offenses, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data obtained by The Washington Post.
Of the 675 immigrants detained in the raids, 163 had been convicted of traffic violations — 90% of those cases involved drunk driving.
Meanwhile, 177 immigrants had no criminal records, though the Post notes that 66 had traffic- or immigration-related charges pending. 2 had homicide convictions, 80 were convicted of assault, and 57 had convictions for "dangerous drugs."
The February raids, which took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, San Antonio, and New York, were part of an operation called Operation Cross Check.
In total, 21,362 immigrants have been brought into custody from when Trump took office in January to mid-March. The Trump administration has said that most of those rounded up were criminals, while 5441 were not. The total number of immigrants arrested for deportation by this time in 2016 was approximately 2500.
Of those immigrants that were criminals, it's not clear how many were convicted of minor offenses or more serious crimes. The Trump administration has only released a detailed breakdown of criminal records for the 675 immigrants targeted in the early February raids.