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56 convicted child sex offenders captured

Offenders awaiting deportation

Some of the offenders sought for deportation as part of Operation Predator.
Some of the offenders sought for deportation as part of Operation Predator.

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Federal agents Wednesday arrested 56 foreign nationals who evaded deportation after being convicted of sex offenses against children in the United States, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday.

The raids started early Wednesday in New York and New Jersey, ICE said. More than 200 federal agents and state and local police participated.

Sixteen other suspects are still being sought.

"They are now fugitives. We will be using our resources to find them," said Michael Garcia, the acting assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security who is in charge of ICE, one of the agencies in the new department.

The suspects are not being charged with any new crimes. The people sought are foreign nationals convicted of sex offenses, who served their sentences, but then evaded deportation, according to ICE.

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Wednesday's raids are part of Operation Predator, a nationwide law enforcement operation launched in July to target pedophiles, Internet predators, child pornographers and people who travel to other countries to have sex with children.

About 1,300 people have been arrested since the operation began, according to ICE. During a weeklong series of raids ending June 30, federal, state and local law enforcement officials arrested 89 foreign nationals who had been convicted of sex offenses, but evaded law enforcement efforts to deport them.

All of those arrested Wednesday were convicted of sexual offenses in the United States, including rape, sodomy, sexual abuse and distribution of child pornography, ICE said. In almost all of the cases, the victims were minors, the youngest was 2. Of the 56 arrested, 29 were in New York and 27 in New Jersey.

The offenders were from 25 counties, most in Central or South America. People from India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Serbia and Montenegro, Spain, Jamaica and Haiti were also on the list of suspects rounded up by ICE.

The convicted offenders were taken to detention facilities in New York and New Jersey, where they will be processed for deportation, ICE said.

CNN correspondent Michael Okwu and senior producer Phil Hirschkorn contributed to this report


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