U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today announced the successful completion of a three-week targeted law enforcement operation in New Jersey that resulted in the arrest of 217 immigration violators and alien fugitives, including 37 with criminal records.

As part of "Operation Return to Sender," a nationwide ICE program to reduce illegal immigration, ICE Fugitive Operation Teams (FOTs) fanned out across the Garden state to arrest priority criminal and fugitive aliens. ICE has three fugitive operation teams in New Jersey.

From April 9 to April 27, ICE officers arrested 75 fugitives. The 142 individuals apprehended were aliens illegally present in the United States. The individuals arrested during the three-week statewide operation came from the following 32 countries: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia. Read more at ice.gov.