Nineteen illegal immigrants with criminal records were arrested in Montgomery County during a week-long Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation that led to 2,901 arrests across the country, officials said Sept. 28.

In Maryland, 47 individuals were taken into custody by the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations office. All of them had prior criminal convictions. Twenty-six individuals had multiple criminal convictions and 22 had felony convictions. Two were convicted sex offenders.

If the individuals were already the subject of a final order for deportation, the agency will start arranging their escorted departure from the country on “ICE Air” flights, ICE spokesman Ross Feinstein said. If the individual has not received a final order for deportation, they will be taken before an immigration judge in the Executive Office for Immigration Review at the Department of Justice, Feinstein said.

In Montgomery County, 13 people were arrested in Silver Spring, along with one person from Germantown, three people from Montgomery Village and two people from Rockville.

Montgomery County police were not involved in the arrests, said county police spokesman Capt. Paul Starks.

“ICE did let us know that they would be in the county [but] they provided no details as to what they would be doing,” Starks said. “They are under no legal obligation to notify us or ask for our help; they did not ask for any assistance so we did not provide any [in this case].”

Ross Feinstein, ICE spokesman, said the agency did not release the names of the people taken into custody because the arrests were administrative.

In a statewide press release, the agency gave details on one county arrest: a 35-year-old Dominican Republic national who was living in Montgomery Village was arrested Sept. 17. He was previously convicted twice for aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer.

No details were available on the other arrests.

The enforcement operation involved 1,900 ICE officers and agents across the country and led to arrests in all 50 states and four U.S. territories.

Officials said the operation, called “Cross Check,” was part of President Barack Obama’s administration’s focus on prioritizing the removal of criminal aliens and egregious immigration law violators, officials said at a press conference in Washington, D.C.

“This was focused solely on convicted criminal aliens,” Feinstein said. “These individuals were targeted.”

There are approximately 11.2 million people living illegally in the United States, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has the means to deport about 400,000 people each year, Feinstein said.

Brad Botwin, director of the anti-illegal immigration group Help Save Maryland, was pleased to hear of the arrests last week.

“This is great but they can do more to take advantage of the technology available to them,” he said. “Everyone who lands in jail and is an illegal alien should be held and deported ... The number one thing [county State’s Attorney John] McCarthy and law enforcement across Montgomery County should be doing is taking care of the safety of residents first.”

Meanwhile, Enid Gonzalez, who manages the legal programs for Casa of Maryland, an immigrant rights advocacy group, said she was heartened by the fact that all of those arrested were convicted criminals, explaining that more of a distinction should be made between immigrants and criminals.

“If they are targeting only people who are convicted, that is progress, because they have been targeting people who are charged, including people who get profiled unfairly,” she said. “Immigrants have no special relationship with criminals, this is the message; criminals hurt people, and among those [victims] are immigrants.”

dgaines@gazette.net; jarias@gazette.net