Federal officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations caught 98 illegal aliens in North Texas and Oklahoma – including eight in Tulsa and three in Oklahoma City.

Almost all of the suspects arrested in the raids last week are accused of having a criminal record besides being in the country illegally. Their past crimes include murder, smuggling, burglary, assault, drug charges, illegal firearms, domestic violence, DUIs, fraud, larceny, sexual acts with a minor, probation violations, resisting arrest, sexual assault, traffic violations and trespassing.

The suspects are from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Pakistan and Peru. The youngest was 19. Five have been documented as gang members. Officials said that 29 of the suspects had previously been deported and re-entered this country illegally. Depending on an alien’s criminality, an alien who re-enters the United States after having been previously deported commits a felony punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison, if convicted.

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum recently announced a new policy to embrace immigrants and he said that policy was not an attempt to make Tulsa into a “sanctuary city.”