Check of 22 area sex offenders leads to arrest of seven for
immigration violations
Gilroy – Police and federal law enforcement agencies arrested seven convicted sex offenders for immigration violations during a sweep of 22 area registered sex offenders. Those arrested were known to agents as being immigrants convicted of aggravated felonies on a child and were taken into federal custody. They will likely face deportation.
“As a matter of policy, we don’t go out and conduct immigration sweeps,” said Gilroy Police Sgt. Kurt Svardal of Wednesday night’s sweep. “That’s not what our citizens want, that’s not our mission. Now, if you are causing problems in our community, if you are a sex offender or gang member, that’s going to be a different story.”
The Gilroy Police Department partnered with the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) team, along with the county’s Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Task Force and probation department, performing compliance checks on registered sex offenders in the city. Police routinely team up with SAFE to conduct compliance checks, however, coordinating with the ICE team is the first of its kind.
The effort was part of Operation Predator – ICE’s mission to remove sexual predators from the streets and into deportation hearings. ICE operates as a division of the Border and Transportation Authority underneath the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“We have the ability within our organization to pick up individuals who are not U.S. citizens who have been convicted of aggravated felonies against a child,” explained ICE Supervisory Special Agent Catherine Miller. “Our vision is to get these individuals off the streets and we gladly do so.”
The seven arrested failed to comply with their immigration status. However, their identities will not be released to the public because they are afforded due process, federal officials explained.
The rest of the convicted sex offenders were found to be in compliance, by actively registering as sex offenders, living at their registered address or complying with probation rules.
If an immigrant is arrested and convicted for an aggravated felony such as rape, the criminal will usually serve time in prison before undergoing an immigration hearing that might lead to deportation.
Since ICE formed in July 2003, more than 1,700 sex offenders have been arrested in California. The ICE team uses Megan’s Law and similar Web sites to identify sex offenders and their whereabouts who are subject to arrest.
As of Friday, it was unknown whether the seven arrested Wednesday were released from jail and somehow were not detained for immigration proceedings or were deported and returned to the U.S.
The federal government has the jurisdiction to enforce immigration law, local law enforcement agencies do not.
According to ICE spokesperson Virginia Kice, what happens to those arrested will be up to an immigration judge.
“In most cases, these people are going to be deported,” she said. “There is a high risk about this criminal population that they will reoffend … We recognize the inherent threat that these people pose to the safety of our community.”
The ICE team hopes to conduct more sweeps with more local law enforcement agencies. However, they do not approach individuals unless they are convicted sex offenders with documented papers. ICE does not perform random checks on immigrants.
According to Svardal, individuals should not worry that they will be unfairly targeted for their immigration status.
“This is an organized operation [with a strict purpose]. When it comes to sex offenders, there is the absolute risk that they will do it again, and we don’t want that happening in our community,” he said. “We don’t want repeat offenders and we don’t want people who are registered sex offenders out of compliance. It’s a win-win situation for everybody. Anytime we can get sex offenders off the streets it’s a good thing.”
