Though hundreds of miles from the border, Utah has active immigration enforcement and prosecution teams. They don't typically chase the taco stand guy, but they don't ignore people whom they find to be undocumented.

ICE agents who arrested Garcia that September morning also took four "incidentals" into custody, Mexican nationals who happened to be in the apartment of an intended "target" of that day's raid. The man they sought was not there.

Agents arrested the four, including two wearing work shirts from a popular fast-food restaurant, because they did not have visas or green cards. They were photographed, fingerprinted, given notice to appear in immigration court and released.

Formal removal proceedings for them will begin in a few months. The men declined interviews.

Nationally, ICE removed 157,281 illegal immigrants in fiscal 2004, 53 percent of whom were identified as criminals — those deportable based on criminal convictions in the United States.

In Utah, from Oct. 1, 2004, to July 31, 2005, there were 1,250 administrative (noncriminal) arrests for immigration violations and 177 criminal arrests. Federal prosecutors obtained 122 indictments related to immigration violations during that period.

Utah also has an immigration court, which began operating this past summer. The court, administered by the Department of Justice, conducts formal administrative proceedings to determine whether foreign-born individuals charged with breaking immigration laws should be deported. Prior to its creation, local cases were heard in Denver via teleconference.

In the past 5 1/2 years, the court has ordered 1,874 people in Utah removed from the United States, according to the Executive Office of Immigration Review.

Among nonborder states, Utah is one of the most diligent for prosecuting undocumented immigrants in both federal and immigration court.

Nonborder states typically do not have an immigration prosecution team in the U.S. Attorney's Office and spend only a fraction of their time on immigration, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Pead, who heads the immigration prosecution section in Utah.

The state is particularly tough on people who are deported and return to commit serious crimes ranging from drunken driving to assault to murder.

"You come back, you come to Utah, watch your back," Pead said. "We're going to come after you."

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University tracks Justice Department cases and issued a statistical report in August.

In 2004, the number of immigration-related cases for the first time surpassed drug-related cases in federal courts nationwide. Immigration now accounts for 32.5 percent of all prosecutions, up 14 percent over five years ago.