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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday that its Harlingen, Texas, field office, working with law enforcement partners, arrested 238 illegal immigrants in a single-day operation that the agency said set a record for targeted arrests in the Rio Grande Valley.
ICE said the arrests marked the highest number of targeted arrests in a single day for Enforcement and
Removal Operations Harlingen.
The June 18 operation resulted in the arrests of illegal immigrants with convictions including attempted kidnapping, sexual battery and drug possession, according to the agency.
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“The ICE mission continues to focus on enhancing public safety and restoring integrity to our nation’s immigration system,” ICE Harlingen Field Office Director Juan Agudelo said in a statement.
“We will stop at nothing to keep our American communities safe by removing one criminal illegal alien at a time,” he added.
The arrests come as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on illegal immigration and seeks to remove criminal illegal immigrants from communities across the country.
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Among those arrested was Manuel Morales-Geronimo, a Mexican national whom authorities identified as a Paisas gang member.
Morales-Geronimo was previously convicted of assault causing bodily injury, possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana, driving while intoxicated, illegal entry into the United States and three counts of illegal reentry, according to ICE.
Jose Alfredo Castillo-Mendoza, also a Mexican national, was arrested during the operation. According to ICE, he was previously convicted of attempted kidnapping, sexual battery and illegal reentry.
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The announcement came the same day President Donald Trump pushed back on a reported DHS move to pause most ICE traffic stops, calling them “one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools.”
The reported pause followed scrutiny over recent fatal encounters involving immigration enforcement traffic stops.
In a social media post, Trump wrote, “We CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!”
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The president added that the DHS policy shift would be “playing right into the criminal’s [sic] hands.”
Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.