Immigration Agents Arrest 93 Men in Sweeps of El Toro Streets

In what Immigration and Naturalization Service agents said is going to be a daily occurrence in Orange County, 93 men were arrested Thursday in sweeps for illegal aliens.

INS agent Emanuel Steenbakker said those taken into custody Thursday were arrested at various locations on El Toro streets beginning about 9 a.m. “It was basically sweeps through the city streets and areas where aliens were congregating,” he said, adding that the agency was reacting to citizen complaints.

None of the people picked up could prove that they would qualify for amnesty under a new federal law, although 26 made residency claims, Steenbakker said. Those 26 will remain in San Ysidro pending deportation hearings. The rest were bused over the border.

Under the Immigration Reform and Control Law of 1986, undocumented aliens can apply for legal immigrant status if they can prove they have lived in the United States since Jan. 1, 1982.

Those arrested Thursday included two men from El Salvador and one from Nicaragua. The rest were Mexican nationals, Steenbakker said. No women or juveniles were arrested.

A 10-man unit will continue to operate sweeps five days a week “forever,” Steenbakker said, adding that INS headquarters in Washington ordered daily sweeps beginning in mid-January.

Steenbakker said the INS initially feared that many people arrested would qualify for amnesty, thereby making the sweeps counterproductive. But the government has found that only a small percentage of those arrested have qualified.

Thursday’s action followed the arrests Wednesday of 85 people in an INS sweep of downtown Santa Ana.

Since January, INS spokesman Wayne Kirkpatrick said Wednesday, sweeps have been a “normal, ongoing procedure,” and the INS has picked up 85 to 100 people every day in Orange County.