ICE Helps to Arrest Gang Members in New Orleans

Yesterday U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that its office, along with the Offices of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and various local law enforcement agencies in the New Orleans area, arrested twenty-eight individuals with ties to the MS-13 and Latin Kings street gangs. After a three-day operation in the New Orleans area, the twenty-eight individuals are now facing criminal charges or deportation. Of the twenty-eight arrested, eighteen are from Mexico, six are from Honduras, three are from El Salvador, and one is from Guatemala.

These arrests were made as part of Operation Community Shield, which is “an ongoing initiative by the ICE HSI National Gang Unit in which the agency uses its powerful immigration and customs authorities in a coordinated strategy to attack and dismantle criminal street gangs across the country.” According to the article, HSI’s National Gang Unit “identifies violent street gangs and develops intelligence on their membership, associates, criminal activities and international movements” in order to stop gang operations.

Operation Community Shield began in February 2005, and to-date, ICE agents nationwide have arrested more than 18,000 gang members and gang associates, who are frequently foreign-born individuals involved in human and contraband smuggling, immigration violations and other crimes with a connection to the border.

For more information, please visit http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1009/100923neworleans.htm

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