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01/07/2005:

"On the trail of 400,000 fugitives"

On the 12th floor of an East Harlem housing project, Ray Simonse and his four-member squad of federal immigration agents thought they had their man cornered.

For days, the agents had tracked Juan Pablo Goris, 40, a native of the Dominican Republic who was in the USA illegally. The trail led to an apartment where Goris was believed to be staying with friends. The agents gathered there early one morning last month, figuring it would be the best time to catch him. But no one was home, so the frustrated agents moved to their next target. (Related link: Photo gallery)

It was a familiar scenario for the immigration agents, who are among about 80 fugitive hunters nationwide assigned by the Department of Homeland Security to find an estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants who disobeyed orders to leave the USA or who failed to appear at immigration hearings. In an unprecedented effort inspired by post-9/11 concerns about national security, DHS is using 18 teams of immigration agents to hunt for these fugitives and add some bite to immigration laws that for decades have rarely been enforced.
Full Article: yahoo.com/news