Twenty-three illegal immigrants arrested in recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids had previously been approved for President Barack Obama's deportation amnesty, the Homeland Security Department said Wednesday.
DHS officials told The Washington Times that all of them were part of Obama's original program to help so-called "Dreamers"
— illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children
— remain in the country. The program, which began three years ago, had granted tentative legal status to approximately 640,000 children by the end of 2014.
Of the 23, eight had been approved but did not get their status renewed at the end of the first two-year period. The remaining 15, who were still part of the Obama "deferred action" program to delay removal proceedings, included 14 Dreamers who were convicted of their crimes after receiving approval. The remaining individual faces a pending criminal charge but the case has not been decided in court.
ICE wants to deport all 23, the Times reported.
Of the eight others who lost their deferred action status beforehand, "two had applied for a renewal and been denied because of a criminal record, another one was denied for not paying the fee required to process the application, two allowed their status to lapse and three were kicked out of the program because of their convictions," the Times' Stephen Dinan reported.
The specific crimes that the 23 Dreamers were arrested and/or convicted of have not been made public.
The 23 were arrested as part of "Operation Cross Check," a five-day nationwide sweep announced March 9 in which ICE agents arrested more than 2,000 people in raids targeting fugitive criminal aliens, including gang members and fugitives wanted for crimes including child pornography, rape and robbery.
That enforcement operation targeted "the worst of the worst criminals," Homeland Security Department officials said at the time.
Of the 2,059 arrested, nearly half had felony convictions for crimes that included robbery, kidnapping, child pornography, manslaughter, and rape.
In all, 89 were convicted sex offenders and 58 were known gang members. Nearly one-quarter of those arrested had re-entered the United States after having been previously deported.