Operation Predator arrests more immigrant sex offenders

Another Operation Predator success:

Twenty-one foreign-born men who have committed crimes since they came to America were arrested Wednesday in Westchester County and could be deported, an immigration official said.

Their crimes included rape, sexual abuse and stalking, with victims as young as 6, officials said. The arrests were part of "Operation Predator," a federal program targeting sex criminals that has resulted in more than 5,300 arrests nationwide.

Thirty arrests were made in Westchester a year ago under the same program. In August, 60 aliens with sex crime convictions were arrested in New York City, and earlier this month, 28 arrests were announced in Suffolk County.

"We are putting every sex offender and child predator on notice," said Salvatore Dalessandro, special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

More than 85 percent of those arrested have been foreign nationals, and more than 2,100 of them have been deported.

Most of Wednesday's arrests took place when the men were asked to report to a county probation office, only to be met by federal agents and taken to Paterson, N.J. for detention.

Because of their immigration status _ 14 were illegal aliens and seven were legal permanent residents _ their crimes made them eligible for deportation to their native countries, Dalessandro said. If their crimes do not warrant automatic deportation, they will have hearings before an immigration judge, he said.

The men came from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico and Paraguay. Five were supporting families in the United States. Officials said the families would "not necessarily" be deported as well.

Most of the convicts had been on probation for "a year or so" since their convictions, said Rocco Pozzi, Westchester's commissioner of corrections and probation. It took that long for their alien status to be confirmed and communicated to the federal government, Dalessandro said.

Pozzi said 19 of the men were arrested in an "orchestrated" roundup at the county probation office in White Plains as they complied with a request to report. He said the men had been fulfilling their probation requirements since being convicted.

Two other men were arrested in the street, Dalessandro said. Six more are being sought. 60 aliens with sex crime convictions were arrested.

In the news:

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W'CHESTER PERV-ALIEN ROUNDUP

Feds move to deport sex offenders

ICE Arrests 5,000th Predator