A sting to net immigration violators, criminals and fugitives spread from Willmar to Litchfield last week.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested three individuals in Litchfield as part of a targeted enforcement initiative April 10-13, called Operation Cross Check.

Officers arrested Jose Alberto Valladares-Castro, 23, and another individual at a South Davis residence April 11. Valladares-Castro was wanted on a deportation order, said ICE spokesman Tim Counts. The second person was not one of ICE’s targeted individuals but was in the residence at the time Valladares-Castro was taken into custody, Counts said.

On April 13, ICE agents arrested Odelin Camacho-Bernal, 39, in Litchfield. According to ICE, Camacho-Bernal, a citizen of Mexico, was convicted of domestic abuse and disorderly conduct last fall.

Agents arrested 18 aliens with criminal convictions, six fugitives ordered to surrender to immigration officials or leave the country and 25 aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law, according to the agency.

The arrests spurred panic in the local Hispanic community. Rumors circulated last week that ICE agents were stopping Hispanics at the Litchfield Econofoods and Dairy Queen, as well as pulling over vehicles headed out of town, said Patricia Lopez of Litchfield. Some families picked up and left Litchfield while others locked themselves in their houses until the situation calmed down, she said.

“The news was like a fire,” Lopez said. “It spread really fast. It was a panic. A lot of people were calling.”

Read more about the arrests and subsequent panic, as well as Lopez's views on what is needed in Litchfield to support the local Hispanic community in the April 19 print edition.