ICE agents arrest 25 illegal immigrants in 2-day operation

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BY OSKAR GARCIA / The Associated Press

OMAHA — Immigration agents arrested 25 illegal immigrants in a two-day operation along the Interstate 80 corridor, a U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Friday.

The arrests were made Wednesday and Thursday in Grand Island, York, Sutton, Gibbon, Hastings and Shelton. Of those arrested, 19 were considered fugitives, meaning they had defied an immigration judge’s final order to leave the country and were targets of the operation. The other six were illegal immigrants arrested as agents targeted others, and will be expected to appear before an immigration judge.

ICE spokesman Tim Counts said the arrests were made in homes, businesses and other places.

Of those arrested, 15 people were from Guatemala, eight from Mexico, one from El Salvador and one from Iran.

The 25 people were being held in Phelps County Jail.

Counts said three other people — two women and a man — were conditionally released from custody because they had children to care for. Counts said they were expected to check in with ICE agents periodically as a condition for their release.

Five arrestees had criminal convictions other than immigration violations, including:

— 43-year-old Salvador Rocha of Mexico, convicted in 1991 for smuggling illegal immigrants.

— 19-year-old Hugo Galaviz of Mexico, convicted of possessing burglary tools and a suspected gang member.

— 35-year-old Ruben Perez-Mora of Mexico, convicted of drunken driving in both Nebraska and Georgia.

Two others who were arrested were not named, but one had been convicted of marijuana possession and the other of a misdemeanor for failing to appear in court to face a petty assault charge, Counts said.