Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : First INS Sweep of 1989 Nets 104 Men

In the first such sweep of the new year in Orange County, immigration authorities arrested more than 100 suspected illegal aliens in downtown Santa Ana Wednesday morning, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said.

“We got an unusually large amount of complaints from businesses and residents in the areas,” said Joe Flanders, an INS spokesman. “The men were harassing customers, blocking sidewalks and urinating in the street.”

The raids, by 30 INS investigators and five U.S. Border Patrol agents, began at 7:30 a.m. and ended 3 hours later with 104 arrests, Flanders said.

Agents targeted four so-called “pickup points” for undocumented workers. The locations were 5th and Euclid streets, Euclid and Westminster Avenue, Standard and McFadden avenues and Sycamore and 3rd streets.

Santa Ana police were notified of the raid, Flanders said. There were no injuries.

The people arrested were taken to the INS holding cell in the Federal Building in Los Angeles. They can either voluntarily leave the country or request a hearing before an immigration judge, Flanders said.

“We’ll continue to do this as long as we get complaints,” Flanders added.