25 arrested in ICE operation targeting criminal alien sex offenders

Four of the targets face federal prosecution for re-entry after deportation

LOS ANGELES -- A Mexican national who attempted to kidnap a seven-year-old girl from a local Laundromat is one of 25 persons arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles during the past three days as part of a joint enforcement effort with the United States Attorney's Office targeting foreign nationals with prior convictions for sex offenses, many of them involving children.

Four of the foreign nationals taken into custody during this week's operation have been deported from the United States previously. The group includes two Salvadorans, a Honduran, and a Mexican national. The defendants are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's newly created Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section for re-entering the United States after deportation, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Earlier this week, the four were ordered detained without bond. A fifth man, a Salvadoran national convicted of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14, also faces criminal charges, but he remains at large.