More than 150 illegal migrant sexual predators have been nabbed in Florida\u00a0as part of\u00a0a massive\u00a0sweep\u00a0dubbed \u201cOperation Dirtbag,\u201d Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The sex offenders were among more than 230 illegals rounded up in the Sunshine State after being wanted for crimes including drug offenses and even murder.<\/p>\n
Others who were arrested had prior convictions for child molestation and sexual assault, according to the Department of Homeland Security.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that \u201cOperation Dirtbag\u201d nabbed over 150 illegal migrant sexual predators. Fox & Friends<\/p>\n
Detainees at Krome Detention Center run by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami, Florida. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThis operation was called Operation Criminal Return. I call it Operation Dirtbag, because these individuals were sex offenders, but not just sex offenders, they targeted children,\u201d Noem told \u201cFox & Friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese 150 individuals will be gone off of our streets. Our kids will be safer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sex pests had sick rap sheets \u2014 including prior convictions for child molestation and sexual assault, according to DHS. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Noem added that the blitz, carried out with the cooperation of Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was a model she wanted to replicate across the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese individuals should have never been in our country to begin with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that they were sexual deviants and perverts, and now we\u2019ve gotten them off of our streets, it\u2019s remarkable. And we need to do more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
ICE agents escort a group of men into a van following their arrest in Miami on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. TNS<\/p>\n
Noem spoke publicly after reports emerged that an influx of federal Border Patrol agents who had been assigned to round up illegal migrants in Chicago were set to leave and continue the Trump administration\u2019s crackdown in other major cities.<\/p>\n
While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are still expected to continue operations in Chicago,\u00a0Illinois Democratic Gov.\u00a0JB Pritzker hailed the development \u2013 calling President Trump \u201cdemented\u201d Tuesday for targeting the Windy City in the first place.<\/p>\n
Both Trump and DHS have maintained the Chicago operation, which began in September, had led to a huge drop in crime, including a 41% decline in robberies and a 35% drop in shootings.<\/p>\n
\u00a0An aerial view from a helicopter, detainees are seen at Krome Detention Center. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Noem ripped the Illinois governor Wednesday morning \u2013 insisting that Pritzker\u2019s \u201cpersonal attacks\u201d were putting \u201chis people in jeopardy each and every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so thrilled with the results that we\u2019ve had in Chicago, and we\u2019re going to surge more resources there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Photos of illegal immigrants charged are displayed during Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem\u2019s press conference in Bradenton, Florida, on October 20, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to just be in Chicago. We\u2019re spreading out to other cities and continuing to do our work. I won\u2019t talk about specific operations, but we\u2019re not going to give him any relief from his political rhetoric,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be in there defending these families. The significant difference that we\u2019ve made in public safety in Chicago is something that we need more and many more cities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 150 illegal migrant sexual predators have been nabbed in Florida\u00a0as part of\u00a0a massive\u00a0sweep\u00a0dubbed \u201cOperation Dirtbag,\u201d Homeland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2300,3640,3411,9,11,10,19301,58],"class_list":["post-37165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-department-of-homeland-security","tag-florida","tag-migrants","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-sexual-predators","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}