U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, arrested more than 680 foreign nationals last Thursday and Friday in a series of enforcement actions.
The agency says 51 of those arrests were made in Austin, and no arrests were made on those days in San Antonio or the rest of the region overseen by ICE's San Antonio field office. That office covers Austin and much of South Texas.
ICE reports that only 23 of those arrested in Austin had previous criminal convictions. That means that more than half were immigration offenders without any criminal records. Nationwide, the agency claims about 75 percent of those arrested last week had criminal convictions.
ICE says the focus of its recent roundup is consistent with routine, targeted arrests carried out by the agency's Fugitive Operations teams. But ICE acknowledged its officers frequently come upon immigration offenders who have not been convicted of crimes, and will arrest them on a case-by-case basis.
Last year, 92 percent of the people ICE deported from within in the United States had criminal convictions.
The agency says reports and rumors of ICE checkpoints and sweeps last week are false.
