Published: June 19, 2009 06:57 pm      

ICE holds on seven

Six men and one woman were arrested in Dalton, Chatsworth and Rome and put on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds for deportation, officials said. The arrests were made with the help of the Conasauga Safe Streets Task Force, said Maj. John Gibson with the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office, and all seven are in the Whitfield County Jail awaiting deportation.

“This was actually a federal operation, the rounding up of illegals here and then shipping them back out,” said Gibson. “As far as I know, the only charge was (them) being here illegally.”

Steve Peluso of the Dalton ICE office said a Detention Removal Unit that deals with fugitives out of the Atlanta ICE office made the arrests. A spokesman with that office could not be reached Friday afternoon.

Arrested were Pedro Francisco Alonzo, 55, 1104 Walston St., Apt. 106, Dalton, a native of Guatemala; Aracely Canales, 36, 703 Hampton Court, Apt. 16, Dalton (El Salvador); Francisco Javier Hurtado-Lazarin, 31, 207 W. Long St., Dalton (Mexico); Miguel Monzon, 514 Burnett Fern, Rome (Guatemala); Eliseo Perez Ramirez, 2190 Leonard Bridge Road, Chatsworth (Guatemala); Alfonso Torres, 505 Willowdale Road, Dalton (original country unknown); and David Rey Sanchez Torres, 1116 Willowdale Road, Dalton (Mexico).

The Conasauga Safe Streets Task Force consists of agents from the FBI and ICE and officers from the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office, Dalton Police Department and Calhoun Police Department.