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Bureau immigration customsenforcement Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/May/05152003/utah/56953.asphttp://www.sltrib.com/2003/May/05152003/utah/56953.asp
Immigration Announces Violent-Crimes Wanted List
By Tim Sullivan
The Salt Lake Tribune
Federal immigration officials, long hobbled by a dearth of resources, say they now have the staff and tools they need to apprehend and deport violent immigrant criminals -- and they want to show it.
On Wednesday, officials of the Salt Lake City sub-office of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) announced that agents had arrested and deported one of the 10 "most wanted fugitive criminal aliens" in the United States.
Baldemar Torres Juarez, a Mexican citizen who served a prison term in Utah for aggravated assault and attempted murder, was arrested May 1 near Soldier Summit and deported within a week, said Salt Lake City BICE Officer in Charge Steve Branch.
Officials used the arrest to announce the most wanted list, which provides information on immigrants who have been convicted of violent crimes and served their sentences but for some reason were not then immediately deported.
Branch said the federal Department of Homeland Security, BICE's parent agency, created the list as part of the National Fugitive Operations Initiative. The $10 million program is designed to double the number of "fugitive operations teams" from eight to 16 and enhance BICE's ability to share information with other law enforcement agencies. What is now BICE was formerly a part of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
"ICE has the resources to seriously attack this problem," said Branch, noting that seven of the 10 most wanted have been arrested in the past two weeks around the country.
Their names were soon replaced with those of mostly Latino men convicted of offenses ranging from rape to child molestation.
"These are not parking violators," Branch said. "They have long, violent histories."
Torres, for example, was a legal permanent U.S. resident when he was convicted in 1993, said Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer Todd Nay. Torres served a portion of his term before being released from Utah State Prison, but the short-staffed agency -- there were only two agents in the state -- had no way of knowing he had been set free.
Since then, Nay said, Torres had worked on several ranches across the nation and had no other known problems with the law.
He was living in Gunnison when he was arrested.
Branch said BICE now keeps in regular contact with the prison and jails to identify noncitizen immigrants who should be deported upon their release.
BICE officials in Washington, D.C., held a similar news conference Wednesday, and the most wanted list won rare praise from immigration experts.
"It's one more step toward restoring respect for immigration laws," said Mark Krekorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which promotes better enforcement of immigration laws. "It's a good publicity move. The INS for a long time has been sending the wrong message."
Angela Kelley, deputy director of the pro-immigration National Immigration Forum, said deporting immigrants convicted of violent crimes "makes complete sense.
"It's sort of refreshing to see that there's some sense to immigration enforcement. The enforcement scheme has been so irrational," Kelley said.
She added that BICE should confine the operation to immigrants convicted of violent crimes.
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