The mostly swamp media (MSM) are twitchy triggered with reports of increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity. Specifically AP (HERE) and Reuters (HERE) are highlighting new ICE crackdowns in several U.S. cities. The media allude to the latest outcomes as part of President Trump’s enforcement approach toward immigration law.
In the interim, DHS Secretary John Kelly has been touring the border region with ICE and Border officials. Yesterday he gave a press conference describing what he has seen, and answering questions from reporters. Well worth watching:
Interestingly, Secretary Kelly is personally going on pre-dawn sweeps (knock and talk) with the ICE officers, and actually going into border tunnels to get a first hand look at the challenges for both DHS units.
(Reuters) U.S. federal immigration agents arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least four states this week in what officials on Friday called routine enforcement actions.
Reports of immigration sweeps this week sparked concern among immigration advocates and families, coming on the heels of President Donald Trump’s executive order barring refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim nations. That order is currently on hold.
“The fear coursing through immigrant homes and the native-born Americans who love immigrants as friends and family is palpable,” Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, said in a statement. “Reports of raids in immigrant communities are a grave concern.”
The enforcement actions took place in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and surrounding areas, said David Marin, director of enforcement and removal for the Los Angeles field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Only five of 161 people arrested in Southern California would not have been enforcement priorities under the Obama administration, he said.
The agency did not release a total number of detainees. The Atlanta office, which covers three states, arrested 200 people, Bryan Cox, a spokesman for the office, said. The 161 arrests in the Los Angeles area were made in a region that included seven highly populated counties, Marin said.
Marin called the five-day operation an “enforcement surge.” (read more)
John Kelly went out with ICE doing “knock and talks” at the crack of dawn!
“The people ICE apprehends are ILLEGAL AND THEN SOME” pic.twitter.com/J5xRzRCW83— TransitionTracker (@DaveNYviii) February 11, 2017
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(Via AP) […] Despite the claims that this is business as usual, an indication of the changed tactics came earlier in the week when Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly testified before Congress. He told lawmakers immigration agents expressed frustration about that they were not fully allowed to enforce immigration laws under the Obama administration. He predicted Trump’s directives would end that frustration.
Ms. Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos deported on Wednesday night following her 2008 arrest for stealing two identities, and using a stolen Social Security number of a man who doesn’t live in Arizona.
Garcia de Ravos was convicted of felony fraud in 2013 and given a criminal deportation order. She exhausted all her appeals, and was not actually deported until February 2017.
DHS Secretary John Kelly down at the border IN THE TUNNELS! That’s right, IN THE TUNNELS!#BuildTheWall pic.twitter.com/hsAsTJyic0
— TransitionTracker (@DaveNYviii) February 11, 2017