Jonathan D. Ross U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas
The largest collaborative police operation in Arkansas's history, "Operation Enforce and Remove," has led to the arrest of 219 illegal immigrants over the past three weeks. The announcement was made by Jonathan D. Ross, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Clay Fowlkes, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. This statewide operation involved federal law enforcement agencies, the Arkansas State Police, and all 19 Arkansas Judicial Drug Task Forces.
In addition to immigration enforcement, these task forces arrested 253 individuals on drug-related charges and seized nearly 15,000 pounds of illegal drugs valued at millions of dollars along with 43 firearms.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents collaborated with several federal agencies including the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service, Drug Task Forces, and Arkansas State Police. The operation began on February 5th following executive orders from President Donald Trump prioritizing immigration law enforcement. Since January 21st, a total of 375 illegal immigrants have been arrested in Arkansas.
"On January 21st, the Department of Justice issued a memo... 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," stated U.S. Attorney Ross.
Ross further explained that this initiative addresses serious threats such as cartels creating unsafe borders, violent crime by transnational organizations and illegal aliens, as well as combating the fentanyl crisis.
U.S. Attorney Fowlkes emphasized their commitment to public safety: "Our commitment to safeguarding communities in western Arkansas remains steadfast as we implement increased immigration enforcement efforts."
ICE developed intelligence on known illegal immigrants who had prior encounters with law enforcement or criminal convictions. Of those arrested during this operation, many will be deported after processing through various ICE offices across Arkansas.
The arrested individuals came from 23 different countries with previous convictions for crimes including battery, aggravated assault, robbery among others.
Larry Adams from ICE reiterated their mission: "We will continue to use every tool and resource available to identify locate apprehend those criminal aliens that threaten public safety."
Simultaneously with immigration operations were drug investigations involving highway interdiction controlled purchases execution search warrants resulting in substantial drug seizures across Arkansas.
The total arrests amounting to 472 mark only one phase within broader efforts aimed at maintaining security throughout Arkansas according DOJ's objectives ensuring community protection against both criminal activities linked either directly indirectly towards issues concerning national borders illicit substances trafficking networks alike
