The arrests of gang members in Kenosha is part of a national effort to foreign-born members of violent gangs. All eleven suspects are believed to be Mexican nationals in this country illegally. They include forty-year-old Francisco Cortes-Ruiz, a self-admitted member of the Surenos-13 gang who was deported to Mexico in 1996 after serving a sentence in California's maximim security Pelican Bay prison. He faces up to twenty years in federal prison for re-entering the country. Two more gang members have been turned over to the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department to face outstanding criminal charges. The remaning eight are in federal custody awaiting deportation.
The arrests were part of the ongoing national U.S. Immigration and Customs initiative called "Operation Community Shield." ICE partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and local law enforcement in making the arrests this week.
