OMAHA — Immigration agents say they’ve arrested 44 illegal immigrants during a five-day operation in several Nebraska cities.

In Lexington, 25 people were arrested, along with 12 in Grand Island, two in Broken Bow and one each in Cozad, Gibbon, Hastings, Kearney and North Platte.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official say arrests were made at homes and businesses in the days leading up to Tuesday.

Of the suspects, 28 were fugitives, meaning they had defied an immigration judge’s final order to leave the country and were targets of the operation. The other 16 were illegal immigrants arrested as agents targeted others.

They are from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador and were being held at county jails in Nebraska.