GILROY -- Local police are teaming up with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to crack down on gangs in the Bay Area.

Since Thursday, more than a dozen suspected gang members have been arrested in Gilroy, San Martin, Morgan Hill and San Jose. The raids are part of a national campaign dubbed Operation Community Shield.

One gang law enforcement is targeting is called Varrio Sureno Rifa or VSA, believed to have 50 members in the Gilroy area. "They have also been engaged in a lot of criminal activity," says Sergeant Chad Gallacinao with the Gilroy Police Department, "homicide, aggravated assault which include stabbings and firearms, and other kinds of crime."

The San Jose office of Iimmgration and Customs Enforcement has pictures of 27 members of the VSA gang. 17 of those people have already been arrested during the sweep. ICE says ten of those arrested we here illegally. Says Joseph Vincent of Immigration Customs and Enforcement, "These individuals, many of which are foreign born nationals are here in the United States either illegally or they're lawfully but they've committed crimes that make them subject to removal from the United States."

Authorities say some of the suspects had been deported before but managed to slip back into the county. Gilroy Police say it appreciates the federal assistance and emphasizes undocumented immigrants who have not committed a crime are not being arrested. "It wasn't the people working at fast food restaurants or any other service providers," says Gallacinao,"it was very much targeted to gangs and criminal activity and their immigration status."

ICE says it is targeting more gang members and expects to make more arrests.