U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Korean Sex Workers Exploited In L.A.; 'Madam' Eun Suk Sun Faces Charges In Korea

So get this: Eun Suk Sun allegedly ran a house (or, rather, apartment) of prostitution right here in L.A.'s Koreatown. But it isn't American authorities who want to take her down for it. Nope, it's Korean officials. And their wish might come true:

Illegal Immigrants Hit The Streets As ICE Fears Sequester Cuts; Republicans Pissed

In what feels to us like a middle finger to those Republicans cheering on draconian "sequester" cuts to the federal budget following a congressional impasse, the Department of Homeland Security says undocumented immigrants are being released from detention centers across America. The action is appa ... More >>

Jose Renderos: $45 Million Fake Credit Card Ring Sees Indictment For Eastside Suspect

Wouldn't you just love to have a virtually unlimited supply of credit cards that could rack up $45 million in charges? Us too. The problem for 38-year-old Eastsider Jose Rolando Renderos his accomplices was that the cards were fake and the charges were fraudulent, according to a U.S. federal grand ... More >>

Corine Danielle Motley: Child Porn Suspect Looks Like Girl Next Door

Updated at the bottom: Authorities say the found her. First posted at 2:03 p.m. Wednesday. Headline has changed. The Homeland Security Investigations folks at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement today are looking for an alleged child pornographer who looks to us like a "girl next door" or even ... More >>

Immigrant Inmates Kept in L.A. County Jail For Days For No Legal Reason, Says ACLU

Updated at the bottom with strong allegations from an ACLU attorney. For some inmates L.A. County Jail is like the "Hotel California" -- You can check-out any time you like / But you can never leave. At least that's what the ACLU of Southern California claims in a lawsuit announced today. The grou ... More >>

L.A. Sheriff Lee Baca Writes Angry Letter to NorCal Assemblyman Who Authored Pro-Immigrant TRUST Act

As L.A. City Hall and the LAPD lean further and further left on immigration policy -- following in the footsteps of the DREAMy, Latino-friendly state Legislature -- the L.A. County Sheriff has yanked even harder to the right. Compared to his liberal peers, "Teflon" Sheriff Lee Baca is turning into ... More >>

Anel Violeta Noriega Rios, Alleged Mexican Drug Cartel Ambassador, Arrested in L.A.

The bloody war between drug cartels in Mexico is being fought largely over which one will control turf that leads mostly to the California border and ... Los Angeles. Yes, we're the illicit drug capital of a hungry drug nation. All roads lead to L.A. Strangely, you rarely hear about cartels operati ... More >>

TRUST Act Passes California Senate: Bill Would Override 'Secure Communities,' Protect Illegal Immigrants From Deportation

The most liberal immigration legislation since California's DREAM Act just passed the state Senate 21-13 -- and it has a good chance of making its way through the Assembly and the governor's office, as well. The TRUST Act, otherwise known as the Anti-Arizona Act, would more or less override the fed ... More >>

Mike Hakopyan Alleged Leader of 'Russian Call Girl Ring' Run Out of Santa Monica, L.A.

It all started last year when customs officials spied two (dare we assume attractive?) Latvian women who just arrived at LAX from Moscow. What was the purpose of their visit? Their stories, federal authorities now say, didn't add up. But they had one thing in common: A man named Mher "Mike" Hakopya ... More >>

Disruption, Rebellion and Resistance: Activists Call for Action

ICE Agent Shot at Home in Carson; 14-Year-Old Son Arrested for Murder

On the same night that three Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents were shot on the job in NorCal -- and about a month after a fatal shootout between agents at the Long Beach federal courthouse -- another ICE agent died just after 9 p.m. on Thursday while sitting in his home in Carson. The vi ... More >>

ICE Agent Shot at Home in Carson; 14-Year-Old Son Arrested for Murder

On the same night that three Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents were shot on the job in NorCal -- and about a month after a fatal shootout between agents at the Long Beach federal courthouse -- another ICE agent died just after 9 p.m. on Thursday while sitting in his home in Carson. The vi ... More >>

Ginormous Drug Bust in L.A. Nets 160 Pounds of Meth: Alan Tamayo-Montoya Arrested

Authorities today said they seized enough meth to keep every trailer park in America humming for at least a year. Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Drug Enforcement Administration along with El Monte and Santa Monica police too 160 pounds of redneck crack off the streets ... More >>

Duncan Roy: Director Trapped in Men's Central Jail

Film director Duncan Roy's three-month nightmare that wouldn't end

ICE Deportation Sweep Includes Over 200 Illegal Immigrants in L.A. Area -- Only Half of Whom Are Serious Criminals

In a plea for the Latino vote, President Obama keeps promising that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will ease up on the deportations. In a direct contradiction to that promise, ICE officers across the country just conducted a week-long deportation sweep called "Cross Check" --

Fishing Boat With 20 Illegals Lands in El Segundo

If you plan on coming to America in a small "panga" boat, try to land in Venice. Stinking wet with ragged clothes on, people will assume you belong. Unfortunately for this group of 20 suspected illegals, likely from Mexico, their boat came ashore along a wide-open stretch of beach in El Segundo. Yo ... More >>

Teen Drug Smugglers Recruited at SoCal High Schools, Cross Border in San Diego With Narcotics Strapped to Bodies

Drug cartels have been relentless in their quest to get narcotics across the border. They've used drug tunnels, cars loaded with bricks of cocaine and even narco-catapults that fling airborne packages over the fence. But their latest weapon might make your stomach churn: U.S. Immigration and Custo ... More >>

Fake Viagra Floods LAX: Suspect Barry Johnson Pleads Guilty; Kil Jun Lee Arrested

You know guys, there's no such thing as generic Viagra. And "herbal" Viagra? That's just shite. Shysters out there are taking advantage of the fact that you're too chicken to go to a doctor for 10 minutes and explain that you have boner problems (or that you're a porn star). So they sell some fak ... More >>

VIDEO: Occupy L.A. Breaks Back Into Foreclosed Home of Blanca Cardenas, Deported L.A. Immigrant

Things got pretty rowdy at the foreclosed North Hollywood home of undocumented immigrant Blanca Cardenas (and her U.S. citizen family, including two small children) on Monday night. Occupy L.A. protesters, who have been rallying against both the Bank of America foreclosure and Cardenas' resulting ... More >>

Blanca Cardenas, L.A. Mom Protesting the Foreclosure of Her Home, Deported to Mexico

A married couple with two children were protesting the foreclosure of their home in North Hollywood on February 22, when the unthinkable happened. Blanca Cardenas, a 37-year-old mother with a 19-month-old baby girl, was arrested by LAPD officers for trespassing at the property. According to her U.S ... More >>

Cindy Reyna, Model and UC Santa Barbara Student, Faces Deportation

Updated at the bottom: She was arrested on suspicion of DUI. First posted at 1:58 p.m. Immigrants' rights activists are coming to the aid of Cindy Reyna, a UC Santa Barbara student and sometime model who they say was arrested and now faces deportation despite being a potential DREAM Act student. T ... More >>

Long Beach Federal Building Shooting: One Dead After ICE Officer Reportedly Opens Fire at Work

Updated at the bottom with IDs, details. Headline has changed. First posted at 6:11 p.m. Thursday Two people, including a law enforcement officer, were shot on the seventh floor of the Glenn M. Anderson Federal Building in Long Beach tonight, according to reports. Live television coverage from CBS ... More >>

True Religion, Gucci, Nike -- $4 Million of it -- Fake And Now Safe From Holiday Shoppers, Thanks to ICE Crackdown

CelebfashionLATrue Religion shorts? Lord have mercy.​We'll give you a peek into our last-minute Christmas shopping list: Fake True Religion jeans. Lots of them. (Note to self: Check Craigslist). Dang it: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today announced it has seized $4 million worth ... More >>

Occupy LA Plans to 'Occupy ICE' at Downtown Federal Building: Immigrant Crackdowns to be Protested

​Occupy L.A.'s City Hall encampment might be a thing of the past, but the occupiers continue to return to their Civic Center home for "general assembly" meetings and protests. Today, demonstrators warn, the tents will return to the neighborhood, this time in front of the downtown federal buil ... More >>

Antonio Montejano, U.S. Citizen and L.A. Dad, Detained for Days on 'Immigration Hold'

Jailed for being brown?​It's one thing to deport undocumented immigrants for non-crimes like selling ice cream or driving with a headlight out, even though they've lived here since they were kids. Awful, and inhumane, but technically allowed, under the Obama Administration's harsh federal immi ... More >>

Adi Zinder -- Undocumented Israeli Immigrant With U.S. Citizen Wife, 'Clean Record' -- Has Been in ICE Custody for Over a Year

Adi Zinder via Facebook​Updated after the jump: Zinder's family says he has been shipped to El Paso. The distraught family of 32-year-old undocumented immigrant Adi Zinder says he's been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since fall of last year, when ICE officers swarmed their Wo ... More >>

Judge Blocks L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca's Attempt to Conceal Deportation Stats, ICE Correspondence

The immigrants rights crowd in Los Angeles may be about to hit a Sarah Palin-sized jackpot of possibly inane, possibly explosive correspondence between the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and immigration feds. Sheriff Lee Baca, head of the department -- largest of its kind in the country -- initia ... More >>

Illegal Immigrants Beware: L.A. Sheriff's Deputies Can Now Run Your Fingerprints in the Field

The L.A. Sheriff's Department is busting with pride over its brand-new fleet of "state-of-the-art mobile data computers" -- the first of which are now installed in the patrol vehicles of a few lucky deputies. In some ways, the computers are an overdue boot into the 21st century. Turns out deputies ... More >>

Report: Over 1,000 Kids in L.A. County Foster Care Have Capable Parents Who've Been Detained/Deported

Applied Research CenterKids come second to border nuts, now?​Arguably two of California's most controversy-plagued government factions -- immigration enforcement and child protection -- team up for double the incompetency in today's "Shattered Families" report by the Applied Research Center. ... More >>

Facebook Friends, Change.org Rally to Prevent Deportation of Man They Don't Even Know

An L.A. college student organized an online campaign to prevent a man she never meant from being deported ... and it worked, at least according to the group change.org. Jackie Mahendra, director of the org's immigrants rights campaign, told the Weekly today that L.A.'s own Jamie Alegre saw via Face ... More >>

ICE's Official Guidelines for Who to Deport Under Confusing Obama 'Amnesty'

If there really was amnesty, ICE would be out of a job.​La Opinion, L.A.'s Spanish-language paper (whose future is much brighter than the English-language paper, turns out!) ran a heartbreaking piece yesterday on the confusion surrounding what many immigrants are referring to as "Obama's law" ... More >>

Deportations Halted for DREAM Act Students, Moms With Babies, Crime Victims, Longtime Residents (and Pretty Much Everyone Else)

OK, fine. You can stay.​Coming out of the closet party, anyone? After three years of insisting he had no power to do so, Obama (or, more specifically, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano) has ordered the courts to sift through over 300,000 pending deportation cases and ... More >>

ICE Raids L.A. Home for Drugs; Finding None, Agents Allegedly Beat Up Bonilla Family, Try to Deport Them

CHIRLAMrs. Bonilla says she can no longer sleep at night.​Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are sudden, devastating -- yet over in a flash, and difficult to trace. A Twitter scare last month set Union Station a-scatter at the mere suggestion that feds were checking IDs. Still, i ... More >>

FBI Documents Reveal ICE's 'Secure Communities' Program Was Mandated to Further FBI's Own Creepy Biometric Database

FBIIf you don't feel violated yet, just wait for the FUTURE.​In a terrifying new twist to the federally mandated "Secure Communities" program -- which lets Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents run an alien check on anybody who passes through any sort of jail or prison -- the FBI ap ... More >>

Feds Raid L.A. Union Station for Illegals, Tweeters Claim; 'Union Station' Starts Trending on Twitter

​[Update: Erick Huerta, who says he was one of the first to Tweet about the feds at Union Station on Friday morning, says he saw three men from the Department of Homeland Security -- one in full Transportation Security Officer uniform, another in "dress pants and a polo shirt with a 'Homeland ... More >>

Illegal Immigrants Wash Ashire North of Malibu Near County Line Surf Spot

Magnus WrenningeCounty Line.​This sad crew of tired, poor, huddled masses washed up on the wrong beach it seems. The 10 suspected illegal immigrants were spotted about 4:30 a.m. yesterday on Pacific Coast Highway just across the county line, in Ventura County, where dozens of surfers go for t ... More >>

L.A. Latinos Sue Sheriff Lee Baca for Failing to Reveal Internal 'Secure Communities' Correspondance With ICE

Sheriff Baca just got sued.​Updated after the jump: The Sheriff's Department says this is ICE's problem, not theirs. This should be an interesting lawsuit -- not only for the future of immigration reform, but for frustrated journalists who repeatedly get their California Public Records Act re ... More >>

How Not to Get Deported: A Guide for 'Illegal' College Students

Tip: Melt their ICEy hearts​The anti-deportation movement, which has been inching toward the mainstream as of late (against all Arizona odds), just made its boldest move yet: A group of DREAM Act diehards released a manual called "Education Not Deportation: A Guide for Undocumented Youth in R ... More >>

L.A. County Economy Would Shrink by More Than $100 Billion If All Illegal Immigrants Were Deported, Says UCLA Report

MPR NewsViolent criminals stealing jobs in Glendale​Awesome: L.A. County just got the Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda treatment. The UCLA Chicano-studies professor released a controversial study back in March, in which he weighed the effects of granting all Arizona's illegal immigrants citizenship agains ... More >>

L.A. Resident Jose Gutierrez Tased Into Coma by Arizona Border Agents, Threatened With Deportation While Still Unconscious

UnivisionGutierrez' skull had to be removed after a tussle with CBP agents, who won't provide surveillance or specifics​Forty-one-year-old Jose Gutierrez has lived in the U.S. since he was a kid. Until three weeks ago, he shared a house in the affluent Valley neighborhood of Woodland Hills wit ... More >>

Miami Man Tries To Smuggle 14 Pounds Of Colombian Cocaine Through LAX In Candy Easter Eggs

Easter came early for ICE officials last Thursday​Esteban Galtes, the 23-year-old Miami resident due in L.A. federal court today for smuggling blow, could have at least waited until springtime to disguise his stash in little pastel candies shaped like Easter eggs. When asked why he was carryi ... More >>

'Operation Spiderman' Foiled At Last: German Man Who Trafficked Hundreds Of Tarantulas Into U.S. Arrested In Los Angeles

Animal Diversity WebSpiderman shouldn't have messed with the internationally protected Mexican red-knee​If you've been charged with smuggling your weight's worth in deadly really fucking creepy tarantulas into the U.S., don't make a swanky business trip to Los Angeles and hope to come out aliv ... More >>

Critics Say Bust Of Downtown L.A.'s Club 907 Was Immigration Raid: Cops Say Two Underage Girls Were Working There

abc.net.auWas the raid on Club 907 just a document check?​The raid made headlines across town. More than 80 women were arrested after the LAPD initiated an investigation based on allegations of prostitution and lewd behavior at an old-school downtown taxi-dancing club. Two underage girls were ... More >>

Missing 17-Year-Old, Cocaine, $100,000 In Cash Allegedly Found By LAPD During Raid Of L.A.'s Club 907 Downtown

Laurie Avocado via FlickrClub 907, in the dark.​Turns out that raid of a downtown hostess club over the weekend was kind of a big deal. The LAPD late Wednesday released some of the seedier allegations that resulted from the bust, including the seizure of drugs, the discovery of a 17-year-old ... More >>

Sheriff Lee Baca Boasts About Booting Illegal Immigrants From Los Angeles County Jails

​Over the last four years Sheriff Lee Baca has helped to turn over 21,000 inmates to federal immigration authorities. And he's proud of it. While the LAPD has long had a controversial don't-ask policy when it comes to dealing with potential undocumented immigrants on the street, the Los Angel ... More >>

Federal and Local Police Crack Down On Counterfeit Products in Southern Califonia

This is a real iPhone​Federal and local law enforcers arrested 30 suspects throughout the Southland in connection with millions of dollars worth of fake jewelry, leather goods, sunglasses, clothing, iPhones and other items that were confiscated, authorities announced at a press conference Tues ... More >>

Four Arrested For Allegedly Operating Brothels In The San Gabriel Valley

Wordpress via shadmia​Four people were under arrest this week for allegedly operating two brothels in the San Gabriel Valley, according to ABC 7. The suspects, who were accused of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, pimping, and pandering were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement ... More >>

$700K Douche-mobile Seized By U.S. Customs

Cizeta.​Ah, the irreverence and pomposity of the rich and taste-challenged knows no bounds, even in these tough economic times. Take the case of this rare, 1994 Cizeta V16 douche-mobile which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seized on Monday not only because it had allegedly bee ... More >>

Settlement in Federal Immigrant Jail Suit

Most Angelenos never see the Brezhnevian Federal Building on Los Angeles Street. Fewer still have had a reason to brave the long security line to get inside, much less to visit its underground detention center. The latter's six holding pens, known, in affectionate governmentspeak as "B-18," are wher ... More >>

Study: Immigration-Program Cops Bust Day Laborers, Not Terrorists

The L.A. Times today profiles a study that claims a Clinton-era program that partners federal immigration authorities with local police is more likely to focus on "soft" arrests of immigrant gardeners and roofers than on serious law breakers or potential terrorists. The program, known as 287(g), is ... More >>