A total of 646 illegal aliens were rounded up by Immigration Customs Enforcement officials in a week-long enforcement operation in the Houston area. 
An ICE spokesman says the roundup was made in conjunction with federal, state and local law enforcement netting the arrests over 540 illegals, some of them with violent records.
Seven were gang members previously charged with aggravated felony or other violent offenses such as homicide, aggravated assault, or domestic violence. Others were charged or convicted of a sex offense or child sex offense such as aggravated sexual assault of a minor, possession of child pornography or rape.
The roundup was a long time coming.
"In recent years, some of the world’s most dangerous fugitives, transnational gang members and criminal aliens have taken advantage of the crisis at our nation’s southern border to illegally enter the U.S.," said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford
Ira Mehlman is media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform or FAIR.
"It is a good start, and it also sends the message to people that if you don't leave on your own, we are going to find you and remove you, and there could be additional penalties as a result. Those with outstanding criminal warrants would have to do time here in the United States before they were returned to their home countries."
Mehlman says a lot of these raids are about changing the mindset of the U.S. as a land with no rules.
"For a long time, it was you come to the United States illegally, there are not going to be any consequences. Now they're demonstrating that there are going to be consequences. People would rather avoid those consequences and simply return home on their own terms."
