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Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested approximately 370 convicted illegal immigrants and immigration fugitives over a three-day operation across 10 states in the Midwest. States where arrests were made include: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

There were 48 arrests in Minnesota, 28 in Iowa, 11 in Nebraska, 35 in the Chicago area and approximately 60 in Michigan. This was the largest ICE operation of its kind carried out in the Midwest.

ICE Director John Morton said in a statement, "ICE is focused on arresting convicted criminals who prey upon our communities and tracking down fugitives who scoff at our nation's immigration laws. The results of this operation demonstrate ICE's commitment to those principles."

The individuals arrested came from 56 different nations, including countries in Latin America, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Over half have prior convictions for serious or violent crimes including rape, sexual crimes against minors, drug trafficking, aggravated assault and robbery. Nine are reported gang members and 16 are convicted sex offenders.

Additionally, 51 of those arrested were immigration fugitives with outstanding orders of deportation who had failed to leave the country. At least 21 individuals have already been accepted for federal prosecution for re-entering the country illegally after a prior deportation. A conviction for felony re-entry carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Those arrested include:

• A 38-year-old German national with prior convictions of criminal sexual conduct.
• A 23-year-old man from Laos with a prior conviction of criminal sexual conduct involving the rape of a child.
• A 24-year-old from the Ukraine with multiple prior convictions including theft, receiving stolen property, drug possession, assault, forgery and disorderly conduct.
• A 25-year-old member of the Latin Kings gang from Mexico with prior convictions including theft, drug trafficking and criminal mischief.

This enforcement action involved over 350 ICE agents and officers, as well as individuals from the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Transportation Security Administration, along with local law enforcement officers.

This week's action was spearheaded by ICE's Fugitive Operations Program. The Fugitive Operations Program is responsible for locating, arresting, and removing at-large illegal immigrants with criminal records and immigration fugitives, who have ignored court orders of deportation. This specific program focuses on cases involving illegal immigrants who pose a threat to national security and public safety, including those members of transnational street gangs and sex offenders.

Officers conducting this past week's operation received support from ICE's Fugitive Operations Support Center (FOSC) located in Williston, Vt. The FOSC was created in 2006 to improve the integrity of the data stored on at-large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives across the nation. They contributed to this effort by conducting thorough database checks on the specific cases to ensure the legitimacy of the leads and accuracies of the criminal histories. Since being established, the FOSC has forwarded over 550,000 case leads to ICE personnel in the field.

ICE has already removed a total of 142,536 criminal aliens from the United States this fiscal year, which is a record high.

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On Aug. 24, St. Paul Police Department (SPPD) Sergeant Don Benner was presented with the ATF Jake Kuredjian Memorial Award at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) 14th Annual Awards Ceremony in Washington, DC by the U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and ATF Deputy Director Kenneth E. Melson.

A St. Paul Native, Sgt. Benner is currently assigned to the ATF Violent Crime Impact Team. He received the recognition for "significantly contributing" to the special agents' safety during the preparation, planning and implementation of ATF enforcement operations.

"Those of us who have worked with Sgt. Benner know that this award is well deserved. His skills and leadership have been long valued by the St. Paul Police Department. We are proud of Sgt. Benner's work and proud of him," said SPPD Chief Thomas Smith.

Benner stated he was awarded on behalf of his overall work with ATF and not one specific operation. According to him, he was honored for commitment to keep officers and the public safe. As a 20 year SPPD officer, Benner has been with the ATF team for a couple of years.

The Jake Kuredjian Memorial Award is an honorary award established in 2002 in the memory of Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputy Hagop "Jake" Kuredjian. Kuredjian was killed in the line of duty while responding to a "shots fired" barricade situation that involved the safety of ATF special agents on August 31, 2001.

The ATF event honored law enforcement officers, citizens and ATF agents for acts of heroism, service and commitment to public safety.

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided the issue of whether a defendant may avoid a sentence enhancement for selecting a victim on the basis of race if his co-defendant selected the victim before he did. The Court of Appeals held that the defendant could not avoid the enhancement.

A jury convicted the defendant-appellant, Richard C. Armstrong, of participating in a racially motivated assault against an African American man. The defendant and two other men went to an Idaho Wal-Mart to purchase orange juice and spotted Raylen Smith, the victim purchasing milk. The three men used derogatory language among themselves inside the store to speak about Smith. At the check-out isle, one of the co-defendants, Bullard, made it known to the other two men that he would fight Smith and the three men discussed the idea. The three men waited outside the store in the parking lot for Smith. Bullard asked Smith, "Do you know what country you're in?" and yelled a racial slur at Smith. Bullard then ran after Smith and tackled him while Armstrong and the other man joined in to beat Smith until he was unconscious. The three men were caught by police a month later due to Wal-Mart's security footage.

Armstrong and Bullard went to trial and the jury returned verdicts of guilty for both. The Presentence Report for Armstrong determined that his base offense level to be 12 and recommended a "victim related adjustment," because the jury determined beyond a reasonable doubt that Armstrong intentionally selected the victim because of the victim's race. Under U.S.S.G. § 3A1.1(a), Armstrong's racial motivation in attacking Smith increased the offense level by 3, for a total offense level of 15 and an imprisonment range of 37 to 46 months. Armstrong appealed the sentence enhancement for selecting a victim based on race, in addition to an upward adjustment under the sentencing guidelines for providing false testimony.

On appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals to the Ninth Circuit, Armstrong, convicted as an aider and abettor, argued that the district court should have been required to make a separate finding as to selection before imposing the enhancement because there was no finding by the jury that Armstrong himself selected Smith as the victim. The Ninth Circuit determined that the purpose of the sentencing guidelines is "to punish those who have a hate crime motivation and to deter future hate crimes." The Court of Appeals held, "It does not matter whether Armstrong was the first to select Smith as a victim because of his race; it is enough that Armstrong too "selected" Smith as the victim of his actions for that reason, by using force to injure, threaten, or intimidate Smith merely because of his race." Therefore, the Ninth Circuit determined that this is sufficient reason to impose the sentence enhancement.

Therefore, the Ninth Circuit determined that the district court correctly applied the enhancements for selecting a victim based on race. Thus, Armstrong's sentence was affirmed.

The case is U.S. v. Armstrong, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, dated August 31, 2010. Click here to review the full decision. 

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On July 21, FLEOA National President Jon Adler appeared before the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia to testify on behalf of FLEOA membership. He was accompanied and supported by FLEOA Officers Duncan Templeton and Don Mihalek. He appeared to provide testimony in response to the subcommittee topic/question of "how well the Federal Employees' Compensation Act is meeting the needs of injured workers in high-risk occupations" (Chairman Lynch July 7, 2010). In this year's issues of the Eighteen Eleven, there have been articles relating to FLEOA's diligent work with the Department of Labor's Office of Worker's Compensation and Federal Employee Compensation (OWCP) to initiate much needed reform. As President Adler stated in his testimony, "From all the pain these noble warriors (FLEOA members) have endured, the pain that hurts them the most is their negative experiences dealing with the OWCP." To illustrate the myriad of problems that confront an injured federal law enforcement officer, President Adler referenced five member cases during his testimony.

FLEOA would like to thank Chairman Stephen Lynch for his leadership and support on this important issue. Following the hearing, Washington Post reporter Joe Davidson wrote an informative article that referenced three of the FLEOA cases sited during the hearing. Two days later, FLEOA national officers met with the Director of OWCP and the Director of the Division of Federal Employees' Compensation (DFEC). FLEOA was fortunate to have two of its heroes present, who were referenced during the hearing: Special Agent Paul Buta and Deputy Jason Matthew. Both provided a powerful account of the difficulties they faced with OWCP and DFEC after they sustained injury.

During the meeting, the FLEOA team reiterated the recommendation that OWCP establish district law enforcement liaisons to serve as problem resolution specialists. They will be accessible in cases where the injured officer is unable to reach their claims examiner or reached a dead-end in communication. Given the positive experiences FLEOA members had when critical care nurses were assigned to their case, FLEOA recommended this become standard practice in cases involving traumatic injuries. Lastly, FLEOA suggested OWCP create an online tutorial that agency supervisors and employees review once a year to better understand the administratively challenging OWCP process.

In August, DFEC sent FLEOA a letter indicating they were implementing FLEOA'S recommendations. The letter included a list of primary and secondary district law enforcement liaisons and their contact information. FLEOA is in the process of disseminating this information to its members and agency officials. Additionally, the letter indicated that OWCP was going to immediately assign nurse case managers for "critical and catastrophic traumatic injury cases" once they were notified by the agency. As FLEOA Board Member Tim Chard can personally state, these positive reforms will greatly assist injured law enforcement officers. FLEOA respects the OWCP and DFEC Directors for initiating these changes and will continue to work closely with them to ensure these reforms are implemented properly.

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As the lead federal law enforcement stakeholder organization opposing the imposition of mandatory fitness standards against incumbents, FLEOA commends the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CID) leadership for announcing it is rescinding its mandatory testing.

FLEOA has strongly opposed the implementation of absolute fitness testing standards against IRS-CID incumbents. While it is important all law enforcement officers maintain a functional level of fitness, it is entirely unfair for any agency to adopt testing categories and score thresholds that are not scientifically validated. As an example, FLEOA maintains that performing an absolute number of sit ups within a minute will only expose an agent to a high risk of injury, and it does not accurately measure an agent's ability to perform. The basic requirement is that law enforcement officers possess the minimum level of skill necessary to perform the job. This varies from agency to agency, and there is no "one-size-fits-all" test that can effectively measure the minimum skill needed for incumbents.

FLEOA is a strong proponent of agencies utilizing wellness programs to encourage its employees to stay healthy and physically fit. Additionally, FLEOA highly recommends that all law enforcement agencies consult with the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) regarding the implementation of fitness and wellness programs. The instructors and supervisors in the Physical Techniques Divisions are the premiere fitness experts for federal law enforcement. The FLETC model recognizes different abilities based on age and gender norms and has the largest database to assist them with defining targeted score ranges. FLEOA urges agencies not to use millions of dollars contracting with outside fitness companies when they have free access to the true fitness experts at FLETC.