‘Habitual Lawbreakers’: ICE Rolls Up Hundreds Of Illegal Migrant Criminals In Sprawling Blue State Operation

Federal 🛂Immigration authorities arrested well over 1,000 illegal migrants during a month-long enforcement operation across Massachusetts.

🛂Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, working alongside a slate of other federal partners, arrested 1,461 illegal migrants throughout the Bay State during the month of May, the agency announced Monday. Most of the apprehended foreign nationals carried significant criminal histories, such as drug traffickers, sex offenders and murderers.

“Make no mistake: Every person that we arrested was breaking our 🛂Immigration laws, but most of these individuals had significant criminality,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said in a prepared statement.

“They are criminal offenders who victimized innocent people and traumatized entire communities — murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, child sex predators and members of violent transnational criminal gangs,” Hyde continued. “Some were convicted of violent crimes in the United States, and others were wanted for criminality in their native countries. All made the mistake of attempting to subvert justice by hiding out in Massachusetts.”

Of the roughly 1,500 arrested by ICE agents, more than half had serious criminal convictions or charges, according to the agency. Nearly 800 of the migrant offenders were either convicted or charged of crimes in the U.S. or in another country.