SAN DIEGO COUNTY -- Federal agents arrested 359 people, including 170 in North County, during a two-week immigration crackdown in San Diego and Imperial counties that ended Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

The sweep, which began March 20, was part of Operation Return to Sender, an ongoing, nationwide effort to arrest and deport fugitives and illegal immigrants with criminal records, said Rob Baker, San Diego field office director for the agency's Detention and Removal Operations.

Only 62 of the 359 people arrested were actually targeted in the sweep. The rest were undocumented individuals encountered during the course of operations, Baker said.

Local immigrant rights activists decried the crackdown, saying such operations create an overall atmosphere of distrust and confusion and spark fears of racial profiling.

"What (the sweep) appears to become is … a dragnet," said Pedro Rios, director of the San Diego American Friends Service Committee.

Authorities said the two-week crackdown netted violators from 15 countries, including 50 with criminal records for violations including child sex offenses, robbery and drug violations.

Sixty-one of the people arrested were fugitives who ignored deportation orders issued by immigration judges, and 39 were previously deported illegal immigrants who had re-entered the United States.

The majority of illegal immigrants in the region are Mexican nationals, and 269 of the 359 people arrested were from Mexico, Baker said. Those arrested also included people from Cambodia, Cuba, El Salvador, Israel, Iraq, the Philippines, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Thailand.

While illegal immigrants without criminal records were arrested in the process of locating the fugitives, the sweep is not random, Baker said.

"We're looking for people specifically…," he said. "We're not indiscriminately going down the street (making arrests)."

Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the immigration agency, said that during the operation, agents go to a location -- usually a home -- where a fugitive is believed to be and typically question everyone there.

"If we get in the house, we're going to talk to everybody," Mack said, adding that the scenario differs by case.

Sometimes the targeted violator is outside the house and it is not necessary for officials to enter the building, she said. Other times people are questioned because they know the targeted fugitive or because they live at a fugitive's former address.

Baker said 270 of the people arrested were removed from the country immediately. Those remaining are in the custody of immigration officials to await hearings before immigration judges, authorities said.

One North County activist said the crackdown is based on unfair racial profiling.

Tina Jillings, founder of the Vista-based human rights group Coalition for Peace, Justice and Dignity, said the operation "creates an environment of distrust and lack of confidence that makes the Latino community feel singled out by the government" and further drives a wedge between Latino residents and law enforcement officials.

She said she is concerned about racial profiling and whether "just because you're brown you can be stopped" during the sweeps.

Jillings said she has spoken with residents in Escondido, Carlsbad and throughout North County who are "experiencing the same sense of fear and concern, an inability to walk down the street without being singled out and questioned."

"The way it's being handled and done is not fair to the Latino population," she said, adding that the sweeps raise concerns over illegal search and seizure.

There is also concern that families left behind after the sweeps are not given adequate information to contact their relatives who have been arrested, said Rios of the American Friends Service Committee.

He said he was contacted twice by residents after operations were conducted at the Malibu Terrace Apartments on Fig Street in Escondido.

Other concerns include children being separated from their parents -- including American-born children of parents here illegally -- and families losing their main breadwinner because of an arrest, he said.

"There's no consideration for who else might be impacted," Rios said.

Baker, of the immigration agency, said that agents use discretion when making arrests, and may not detain an individual if "to take the parent is not in the best interest of the child."

Parents also have the option of taking the children with them or leaving them with relatives, Baker said.

"We're very cognizant not to leave children alone … we're not arbitrarily ripping parents from children's arms," he said.

Since Operation Return to Sender began in May of 2006, more than 18,000 people have been arrested nationwide, authorities said. Of those, more than 850 have been arrested in the San Diego area.

Contact staff writer Sarah Wilkins at (760) 761-4414 or swilkins@nctimes.com.