Twenty-one of the 1,378 people arrested were taken into custody on murder related charges, seven were arrested on rape or sexual assault charges, and 280 were arrested on immigration violations, ICE said.
ICE said in a statement Thursday that 1,095 of those arrested in the latest action were confirmed as gang members or affiliated with gangs. Of those arrested, 1,098 were arrested on criminal charges, the agency said.
“Gangs threaten the safety of our communities, not just in major metropolitan areas but in our suburbs and rural areas, too,” Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said in a statement.
The Department of Homeland Security said the six-week operation was the largest gang round-up ever conducted by DHS’ office of investigations to date.
Of those arrested 933 were U.S. citizens and 445 were foreign nationals, authorities said.
The agency has been criticized for what opponents had feared were roundups of undocumented people during the administration of President Donald Trump, who had made illegal immigration a key issue of his campaign.
In February, ICE said enforcement actions then were planned before Trump’s executive orders on illegal immigration.
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The agency also said three people arrested were in the past protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era program designed to allow those brought into the United States as children to remain in the country. People in the program are often referred to as “Dreamers” because of its relation to the failed DREAM act.
One of the three already had DACA status removed and two others were in the process, Derek Benner, deputy executive associate director of Homeland Security investigations, said at a news conference.
The agency faced questions from immigration rights activists after a Mexican man under DACA protection, 23-year-old Juan Manuel Montes, claimed through his attorneys last month that he was taken across the Mexican border by authorities and then was arrested and deported after he returned illegally.
