Absconder hunt nets 89 in Houston ICE arrests

Houston Chronicle:

The arrest went exactly as the agents planned.

A few minutes after dawn, the Mexican citizen backed his new Chevy pickup out of the driveway onto the street, on the way to his job as a construction supervisor.

Within seconds, Reynaldo Campos, wanted for being in the country illegally, was boxed in by vehicles driven by immigration agents who, wearing flak jackets and guns drawn, ordered him out of the car and cuffed him.

It was a successful start to last Thursday's roundup of illegal immigrants, the third of a four-day operation to track down illegal immigrants who have gone underground after being ordered to leave the country.

It's a daunting task.

In Houston alone there are an estimated 30,000 immigrant fugitives, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Nationally there are about 575,000.

Last week, ICE agents in the Houston Field Office's area of responsibility, which extends over 52 counties from Louisiana to Corpus Christi, cut that number by a small margin.

Before the operation began at dawn Tuesday, ICE officials were confident of apprehending hundreds of immigrants. But when it ended shortly before noon Friday, they had picked up 89, including 28 with criminal convictions.

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More than a half a million nationwide is a scary number. It is not clear to me why someone is released after they have been ordered to leave. It is not like they have ties to the community. Why not transport them out of the country as soon as the judge issues his order? They can appeal his decision in their native country.