ICE teamed up with federal, state and law enforcement agencies to arrest gang members

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported on Wednesday that a nationwide crackdown on street gangs in the United States has resulted in the arrests of 1,759 suspects.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported on Wednesday that a nationwide crackdown on street gangs in the United States has resulted in the arrests of 1,759 suspects.

Of all those who were arrested, 1,500 were gang members, gang associates or individuals with criminal records in the past and 17 were gang leaders. The ICE reported that more than 30 percent of the individuals were involved in violent criminal activities in the past.

The ICE said that others were arrested on the basis of immigration violations and they are facing deportation. The arrests were made under Operation Community Shield, which is a long-term initiative that was launched by the ICE in the year 2005 in order to disrupt and dismantle the transnational violent street gangs in the US.

According to the ICE, transnational gangs have foreign-born members in significant number and they are frequently involved in the smuggling of human and contraband, violations of immigration rules and other crimes connected with the border.

As the part of the latest enforcement action, which came to an end on Tuesday, the ICE teamed with federal, state and some local law enforcement agencies and targeted the violent street gangs and their criminal associates in 53 associates across 28 states in the US.

The ICE Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, Julie Myers, said that street gangs prey on the neighborhoods in which they operate and they create fear through their violent activities. Myers said that by partnering with other law enforcement agencies across the country, they are successfully targeting these gangs, arresting their leaders, spoiling their operations and most importantly, they are putting their members and associates behind the bars.

The ICE has arrested more than 11,000 members and 890 different gangs’ associates since 2005. Of all the people who are arrested, 145 are gang members.