INS to Open New Investigations Office
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Hoping to bolster a jailhouse program aimed at rooting out illegal immigrants, the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service on Thursday said it would open a new investigations office in Camarillo next month.
The office will accommodate a trial program launched by the INS in Ventura County last year. Under the program, INS agents screen immigrants being held in the Ventura County Jail. They look for inmates who are in the country illegally or immigrants who have committed crimes that warrant deportation.
Officials said federal agents have put immigration holds on about 1,000 inmates, the first step toward deporting them once they have served their sentences. Earlier this month, federal officials granted the program long-term funding.
The INS said that the new investigations office would be staffed by 18 agents, and that additional officers from the agency’s Deportation and Inspections Unit are being considered for deployment to Ventura County. The office will be at 770 Paseo Camarillo.
The agency described the new office as a precursor to the opening of a full-service “sub-office” in Ventura County.
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