ICE says it rounded up 132 illegal immigrants in the nation's capital and Virginia over the past two weeks — including an El Salvadoran national identified as a high-ranking MS-13 member.
The Washington field office of the Immigration Customs Enforcement Agency said it targeted "various violent offenders, gang members, sex offenders, fugitives from justice, and those who otherwise pose a significant public safety threat" during "Operation Eagle's Shield." The arrests took place from July 9-20 throughout Virginia and the Washington, D.C., metro area, officials said.
"We set out to locate and detain known, dangerous criminal aliens who are hiding and operating in the neighborhoods we call home," field office director Russell Hott said in the statement.
According to ICE, scooped up during the operation was an El Salvadorian national described as a high-ranking member of MS-13; a Bolivian national who has four prior convictions for rape and intercourse with a victim under 13 years old; a Peruvian national previously convicted for battery and failure to register as a sex offender; and an El Salvadoran national facing criminal charges for felony strangulation.
Those arrested came from Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Mongolia, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, and Sudan.
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