Federal immigration authorities have rounded up dozens of convicted criminals in metro Atlanta, Augusta and northwest Georgia, officials said Wednesday.
Of the 60 people arrested during the June 14-18 operation, 17 were convicted felons or had convictions for associations with a criminal street gang, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Vincent Picard said in a statement.
The others arrested had multiple misdemeanor convictions, he said.
Convictions included DUI, drug possession, aggravated assault and battery, Picard said. Some of the convictions went back years, including an El Salvadoran man convicted of possession of cocaine in 2004 and a Honduran man convicted of a concealed weapon in 2001 and possessing a firearm during a felony in 2007.
“All 60 were arrested administratively for being in violation of immigration law, and all are being held in ICE custody pending immigration removal proceedings or removal from the United States,” Picard said in the statement.
Those arrested came from Antigua, Belize, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Romania, South Korea and Thailand.
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