SAN DIEGO -- Federal agents arrested 81 people last week in a crackdown on illegal immigrants connected with gangs, it was reported Wednesday.

Twenty U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, working with Escondido police and county sheriff's deputies, arrested people in Fallbrook, San Marcos, Vista, Poway, Escondido and northern San Diego, according to The North County Times.

Miguel Unzueta, special agent in charge of ICE investigations in San Diego, told the newspaper that the local sweep was part of a nationwide initiative called Operation Community Shield. The three-year-old effort uses immigration laws to remove gang members from the country.

"We're taking gang members off the street," Unzueta told the newspaper. "Gang members and gangs are not out there working hard to send money to families in foreign countries; gang members are out there committing crimes."

Of the 81 people detained in the sweep, which wrapped up Sunday morning, 38 were gang members or gang associates, the Times reported. The remaining 43 people included 41 foreign nationals with criminal histories who either were here illegally, or whose criminal offenses made them eligible for deportation, according to the newspaper.