United States Federal agents have arrested 86 people, including Nigerians, in a three-day operation that targeted unauthorised immigrants and those with criminal records.

The operation ended Thursday and was conducted in parts of Texas and Oklahoma by the Enforcement and Removal Operations arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency said in a written statement.

Of those arrested, 82 were men and four were women. They range in age from 19 to 61 years old, ICE officials said.

According to ICE, 55 had convictions for crimes such as sexually exploiting a minor, aggravated assault, smuggling and driving under the influence, and 21 had entered the country illegally after being previously deported.

Eleven arrests were made in Dallas, four in Terrell, three each in Arlington and Fort Worth, two in Denton and one each in Garland, Grand Prairie, Mansfield, McKinney and Plano, ICE said.

The majority — 55 people — were from Mexico. The remainder came from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Jordan, Laos, Liberia, Nigeria, Panama, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.

Among those arrested in Dallas was a 37-year-old man from Guatemala who was awaiting criminal prosecution on multiple counts related to the continuous assault of a child younger than 14, the agency said.

Another man, a 57-year-old citizen of Bangladesh, had legally entered the U.S. in 1994 on a temporary visitor visa. He was convicted last year of manufacture or delivery of methamphetamine and sentenced to two years’ probation.

ICE said in the statement that such operations are routine and that officers also encounter others in the country illegally. Those cases are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and arrests are made “when appropriate.”

•Adapted from a report by Dallas Morning News

Update news