The Department of Homeland Security said Monday that in just the first two weeks of August, 1,328 people were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Maryland and Virginia.
That’s nearly 100 people arrested each day in Maryland and Virginia in just the first half of the month.
DHS called this âOperation Safe Community: Washington, D.C.â and it described the people they arrested as being in the country illegally.
Out of the more than 1,300 people brought into custody, almost 400 have either been convicted or charged with crimes in the U.S., DHS said. News4 has not been able to independently verify that information without a full list of the people who were arrested.
What DHS did share were the names of nine people arrested, such as one man taken into custody in Manassas, who DHS said allegedly is an MS-13 gang member and has previously been convicted of driving while intoxicated, driving on a suspended license and illegal re-entry.
Another man, originally from Guatemala, was arrested in Alexandria and had, according to DHS, been arrested before for rape of a mentally incapacitated victim. DHS said one person they arrested had a warrant out for murder.
ICE officials said removing these people from Virginia and Maryland makes communities safer.
More than 1,300 people were arrested, and not even half, according to DHSâ own numbers, have been charged or convicted with crimes.
