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Officials arrest 36 for immigration violations in Minnesota and S.D.

Last update: March 3, 2008 - 7:41 PM

Dozens of "fugitive aliens and immigration violators" were arrested in southwestern Minnesota and South Dakota in a three-day sweep last week, federal officials announced Monday.

Guatemalans accounted for 31 of the 36 people apprehended in Worthington and Pipestone, Minn., and across the border in Sioux Falls, S.D. Two are from Mexico, two are from El Salvador and one is from Honduras.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said fugitive aliens are illegal immigrants who fail to appear for their immigration hearings or become fugitives after a federal judge orders them to leave the country.

Among the 36, six had criminal convictions along with their immigration violations. In a news release, ICE highlighted two of the people arrested:

• Merido Mazariegos, 32, of Guatemala, convicted of fifth-degree assault in Minnesota's Nobles County.

• Jose Inocente Garcia-Huix, 38, of Guatemala, convicted in Nobles County last year for forging two state identification cards under aliases.

PAUL WALSH