LITTLE ROCK—The largest collaborative police effort to enforce federal immigration laws in Arkansas’s history resulted in the arrest of 219 illegal immigrants over the past three weeks. Jonathan D. Ross, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Clay Fowlkes, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced the culmination of “Operation Enforce and Remove,” an arrest operation across the state that involved all federal law enforcement agencies operating in Arkansas, as well the Arkansas State Police and all 19 Arkansas Judicial Drug Task Forces, who coordinated and organized the overall operation. In addition to assisting with immigration enforcement, these task forces also arrested 253 individuals suspected of committing drug crimes and seized nearly 15,000 pounds of illegal drugs worth millions of dollars and 43 guns.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents collaborated with the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the U.S. Marshals Service, as well as the Drug Task Forces and Arkansas State Police, to arrest 219 illegal immigrants during the three weeks of this enforcement operation, which began February 5. In total, since January 21, when President Donald Trump issued executive orders designed to prioritize the enforcement of immigration laws, 375 illegal immigrants have been arrested in Arkansas.
“On January 21, the Department of Justice issued a memo to all Department components, to include all U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the DEA, FBI, ATF, and U.S. Marshals, instructing each agency to partner with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus our resources and attention to immigration-related investigations and prosecutions at the federal, state, and local level,” U.S. Attorney Ross said.
“The memo outlined policy changes in response to the President’s day one Executive Orders and provided guidance critical to the Department’s mission to combat three of the most serious threats facing the American people: First, cartels and other transnational criminal organizations which have created unsafe borders and huge flows of illegal immigration in violation of U.S. law. Second, brutal and intolerable violent crime by members of these organizations and illegal aliens. Third, the fentanyl crisis and opioid epidemic that are poisoning our communities and have inflicted an unprecedented toll of addiction, suffering, and death.
“Because the Justice Department must and will work to eradicate these threats, the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in Arkansas along with each of our federal law enforcement partners will continue to prioritize working with ICE to aggressively enforce the immigration and drug-and-violent crime laws enacted by Congress. When these efforts are combined with our partnerships with our outstanding state and local law enforcement officials, we are confident that this first operation will lead to additional successful operations in the days ahead.”
“Our commitment to safeguarding communities in western Arkansas remains steadfast as we implement increased immigration enforcement efforts,” U.S. Attorney Fowlkes said. “We are dedicated to upholding the law and ensuring public safety while maintaining the highest standards of law enforcement and prosecution. Through collaboration with our federal law enforcement partners, we will address the challenges of illegal immigration and protect our communities from criminals who seek to illegally enter the United States and subject our communities to their criminal activities and associated violence.”
In preparation for “Operation Enforce and Remove,” ICE, working with other federal and local partners, developed intelligence related to the locations of known illegal immigrants. The individuals these agents sought to arrest and remove had previous encounters with law enforcement, and therefore had known addresses in various databases. Some offenders were previously convicted of crimes, while others had some type of prior contact with law enforcement. All were in the country illegally and will be deported. Of the 219 arrests of illegal immigrants during the enforcement operation, 127 individuals were processed through the ICE Enforcement and Removal office in Little Rock, 57 were processed through the Fayetteville office, 23 through the Fort Smith office, and 17 individuals through the Texarkana office.
The illegal immigrants located in Arkansas came from 23 different countries. The crimes some of these individuals were previously convicted of include: battery, aggravated assault, robbery, drug possession and distribution, domestic violence, sexual assault, illegal firearm possession, running an illegal casino, forgery, hit-and-run, indecent exposure, and sexual assault against a minor.
“We will continue to use every tool and resource available to identify, locate and apprehend those criminal aliens that threaten public safety,” said Larry Adams, ICE Assistant Field Office Director. “Our enforcement efforts are unwavering and our dedication to protecting our communities remains stronger than ever.”
At the same time that ICE was engaged in immigration operations, Drug Task Force officers were conducting numerous drug investigations that involved highway interdiction, controlled purchases of narcotics, the execution of search warrants, and other methods aimed at arresting individuals known to be involved in drug trafficking. In addition to the 253 drug-related arrests and 43 guns seized, officers across the state seized the following drugs: 225 pounds of methamphetamine, 65 pounds of cocaine, 14,542 pounds of marijuana, and 2,681 fentanyl pills and 90 grams of fentanyl powder. The street value of these drugs, broken down to a user level, is potentially hundreds of millions of dollars. These individuals will be prosecuted at either the state or federal level, depending on the particular case.
The 472 arrests announced today are the culmination of the first, but not last, collaborative federal and state law enforcement effort designed to carry out the Department of Justice’s mission, and help keep all Arkansans safe.
