Feds capture 34 illegal immigrants

Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 14, 2006 at midnight

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Federal authorities apprehended 34 illegal immigrants on the Western Slope this week who were convicted of past crimes, wanted for failing to leave the U.S. as ordered, and being sought for immigration violations, agents said Wednesday.

Agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continued to carry out their operation, "Return to Sender," in the Carbondale area of Garfield County on Monday and Tuesday, targeting 13 fugitives who were ordered by U.S. immigration judges to leave the country but failed to do so, a spokesman said.

Agents caught the illegal immigrants they had targeted and 21 other who previously had been convicted of crimes or had illegally re-entered the U.S. after a previous deportation, said Carl Rusnok, an ICE spokesman based in Dallas.

Federal agents are expected to present two of the cases to the U.S. attorney's office in Denver for possible prosecution.

Three others who were arrested had been released from prison after serving time for distribution of controlled substances, unlawful sexual contact, indecent exposure to minors and adults, larceny, weapons possession on school grounds, fraud and impersonation.

Although the three should have been removed from the country after their sentences, Rusnok said he was not familiar with how they might have slipped through the system.

ICE agents, who work under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, launched Operation Return to Sender in May and arrested 2,179 immigrants from several countries who were convicted of violent crimes, and foreigners who ignored orders to leave the country.

At the time, 15 offenders were picked up in Colorado.

But agents from the Fugitive Operations Program have been making other arrests in Colorado since May, Rusnok said.

Of the 34 immigrants caught this week, 12 have been returned to Mexico, agents said.

Twenty-two immigrants were from Mexico, nine were from El Salvador and three were from Honduras, ICE said.

Garfield County sheriff's deputies aided the federal agents in the two- day operation.

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