Pedophiles Rounded Up for Deportation
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Federal immigration agents and city probation officers arrested 64 convicted pedophiles yesterday – and now will try to have them deported.
“When you look at the crimes they have been convicted of, it’s mind-boggling,” said Martin Ficke, New York’s special agent-in-charge for the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “They are the worst of the worst.”
Mr. Ficke said the one of the convicts raped his own 15-year-old daughter, and another raped his six-month old baby, passing a sexually transmitted disease to the infant. Other victims ranged in age from 2 to 5.
Some of the convicts are illegal immigrants, and others were legal foreign-born residents who violated their rights to remain on American soil when they were convicted of sex crimes, according to Richard Levy, first deputy commissioner for city Department of Probation.
“The pedophiles rounded up today have abused the privilege of living in this country,” Mr. Levy said.
As part of Operation Predator, agents from the Homeland Security ICE unit and the city Department of Probation arrested 64 of their 67 intended targets yesterday morning. Officers waited for convicts as they made scheduled visits to probation officers, or arrested them at home when they failed to make the meetings.
“They were very surprised,” said Hector Benitez, supervisor with Intelligence Division of city Department of Probation, who helped lead the arrests.
Mr. Ficke said legal immigrants were shocked to find themselves facing deportation because “they think they have carte blanche to do what they want and stay in the United States.”
Despite the severity of their crimes, most of the convicts served little or no time, according to Mr. Ficke. However, their status as convicts on probation means they can no longer remain legally in this county.
The convicts are from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Korea, Yemen and Nigeria. Twenty of the convicts were illegal immigrants and 47 were legal permanent residents. They were arrested at every borough except Staten Island.
Mr. Ficke said the countries receiving the deported convicts will be warned about their criminal histories.
There are approximately 1,400 sex offenders on probation in the city, and 977 of them are convicted felons, according to the Department of Probation. In half the cases, the victims were younger than 16, and more than one third were younger than 11.