Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested dozens of illegal immigrants with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, including at least one rapist, in a targeted New Jersey operation, the agency announced Thursday.

Deportation officers in Newark apprehended 38 illegal immigrants in a local operation spanning from April 15 to April 26, the agency announced. The migrants carried a slate criminal convictions and charges, such as a Honduran convicted of rape and DUI, a Chilean convicted of felony burglary, a Colombian charged with money laundering, a Dominican convicted of sexual conduct with a child, and various other foreign nationals convicted of crimes.

“Those who enter our country illegally and break our laws should know that we will use the full force of our immigration authority to bring them to justice,” said ERO Newark Field Office Director John Tsoukaris. “These individuals were placed in ERO custody and processed for removal proceedings under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

ICE reiterated its goal of targeting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, a necessary priority given the sheer volume of illegal immigrants living in — and continuing to enter — the U.S. against a limited number of deportation officers.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued the Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Laws in September 2021, a policy directive that encourages federal immigration authorities to exercise “prosecutorial discretion” when determining who should be subject to arrests, detainers and removal proceedings. The directive noted that the federal government simply does not have the resources or manpower to apprehend the more than 11 million illegal immigrants estimated to be living in the U.S.

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division arrested 73,822 noncitizens with criminal histories in fiscal year 2023, according to the agency. There were 1,713 charges or convictions for homicide associated with this group, as well as charges and convictions for sexual assault, weapons offenses and other crimes.

There were 136,623 deportation orders by immigration judges in the first half of the 2024 fiscal year, according to research compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

This spike comes as federal immigration authorities continue to deal with the ongoing southern border crisis, which has included a record number of illegal encounters by Chinese foreign nationals and suspected terrorists.