Gardai arrested 101 people yesterday in the second stage of Operation Hyphen, which targets illegal immigrants.
Yesterday's searches and arrests took place all over the State with the exception of Dublin. They started at 7 a.m. and continued throughout the morning.
Supt John Farrelly, Garda spokesman, said that of the 101 people detained nine were arrested on deportation orders. The remainder were being held under the Aliens Act.
"The operation was mounted by gardaí everywhere in all parts of the country with the exception of Dublin," he said.
He said some of the 92 who were detained were taken to local courts yesterday. Under the Aliens Act they needed to produce their papers.
"Of those 92 people, we give them every opportunity to produce their documentation. If they haven't papers on them, then we allow them to go to get them if they have them so not all will go to court and they will be released," he said.
Others who could not produce their documentation would go to court. Some might end up in detention centres, where applications would have to be made.
Supt Farrelly said those arrested came from all over the world, including Russia, China, South Africa, Kosovo and Angola.
The arrests operation was organised by the Garda Immigration Bureau and involved the mobilisation of 300 gardaí.
In the south, Operation Hyphen resulted in the detention of 22 illegal immigrants. It was welcomed by Ms Áine Ní Chonaill, of the Immigration Control Platform (ICP), who described the response of the authorities to date as "risible and pathetic".
Of the 22 people detained following early-morning raids throughout the region, 10 were being held in Cork city.
The operation, said Mr Brendan Hennessy, of NASC, the Irish Immigrant Support Group, had spread fear among the asylumseeker community, which had to rely on word of mouth to find out what was going on.
Mr Hennessy said people were fearful. Many asylum-seekers had been waiting for up to three years for their papers and had dropped out of the system because they needed to find work to support themselves.
In Waterford City and county seven people were detained after early-morning swoops on 11 premises. Gardaí from Ballybricken station in the city, along with members of the bureau, carried out searches on 10 properties.
In Killarney, Co Kerry, 13 people were brought into Garda custody during the raids. The raids took place at 7 a.m. and many of those arrested were working in food outlets and hotels in the tourist town.
By 6 p.m. four persons were released without charge. It was expected charges would be brought against others later last night.
This is the second time such an operation has been mounted. Last Wednesday it was concentrated in the Dublin area. In a series of searches of more than 100 addresses throughout Dublin, some 200 gardaí arrested more than 40 people.