Mission: Search and Send Back

By Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

Thousands of people took to the streets in cities across America last week to protest bills in Congress that target illegal immigrants--including legislation to build a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border and make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally. Regardless of whether the laws are enacted, authorities are already cracking down. Teams of officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are rounding up some of the half a million fugitives the U.S. says are skirting orders to leave the country, and soon the dragnet will expand. In January the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, announced that it will triple the number of fugitive-hunting teams, from 17 to 52, and that its goal is to double the number in 2007.

While illegal immigrants are said to number some 10 million in the U.S., federal agencies see the greatest strategic value in focusing on those who break more than just immigration laws. ICE expects the new teams--based in major cities, including Baltimore, Los Angeles and Miami-- to arrest up to 50,000 fugitives a year, with the goal of booting out every last one. For this photo essay, TIME photographer Robert Nickelsberg traveled with an ICE team and border agents in San Diego as they sought and arrested immigrants suspected of running afoul of the law.

with reporting by Timothy J. Burger/Washington