25 LI immigrants to be deported

Federal agents arrested 25 people on Long Island as part of a multistate sweep targeting immigrants who committed crimes or defied deportation orders.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said 135 immigrants from the metropolitan area were among the 2,901 arrested nationwide in the seven-day operation. They will be sent back to their countries of origin, agency officials said Wednesday.

The enforcement operation reflects the Obama administration's new focus on deporting serious immigrant offenders rather than undocumented immigrants with no criminal record, the officials said.

ICE director John Morton said in a statement that the agency will focus "on the arrest and removal of convicted criminal aliens and those that game our nation's immigration system."

Although ICE did not release a complete list of those nabbed in New York, spokesman Lou Martinez said 10 were arrested in Suffolk and 15 in Nassau.

Among those identified was Ian Kirt Kuar, 52, a Trinidad and Tobago national who was living in Hauppauge. He had been convicted of second-degree manslaughter in 1975 and fifth-degree sale of a controlled substance in 1995, ICE officials said.

Martinez said agents acted on tips and conducted surveillance on suspects before making arrests.

"This operation is a concerted effort by our officers and special agents," Christopher Shanahan, field office director for ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations in New York, said in a statement. "We will continue using all our resources to ensure convicted criminal aliens are sent home."