U.S. Federal authorities revealed that 40 immigrants were arrested last week in a police operation which lasted three days in various Texas cities.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced on Tuesday that 37 men and three women, all of them with a criminal record were arrested in eastern Texas, in an operation carried out in at least three cities in the state.
According to CBS, immigration authorities said that 14 of those arrested, all of them Mexicans, were arrested in Tyler; 12 in Longview; six in Canton and the other eight nearby.
The ages of those arrested were between 21 and 60 and the crimes they're accused of include physical aggression, driving under the influence of alcohol, breaking and entering and injuring a minor.
The operation, conducted by the office of the chief of police of Smith County along with the police departments of Tyler, Longview, Kilgore and other entities ended last Saturday in one of the largest immigrant arrests made in Texas in recent months.
Thomas P. Giles, director of the ICE field office in Dallas told the Tyler Morning Telegraph that "These ICE operations are directed against foreign criminals who threaten our local communities."
According to the same source, in the 2013 fiscal year, ICE transported 368,6644 undocumented immigrants throughout the country-- 80% of them, the newspaper says, had already been convicted of a crime.
"These operations contribute to improve public safety due to the removal of these criminals from our streets and country," said Giles.