The Region - News from Oct. 1, 1985

Immigration agents arrested more than 300 suspected illegal aliens in a series of raids that covered nearly the entire 40-mile length of Orange County. Thirteen U.S. Border Patrol agents, riding in a convoy of buses, began their blitz in San Juan Capistrano, raiding farms and labor pickup points on city streets along the Santa Ana-San Diego Freeway corridor as far north as Anaheim, authorities said. The eight-hour raid also included a sweep of the Orange County Transit District bus depot in Santa Ana, where several people sprinted away from the agents. Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Gene Smithburg said the operation “went smoothly and without incident.” The suspected aliens, most from Mexico, will be given the option of a voluntary deportation or a hearing before an immigration judge, Smithburg said.