Federal immigration arrests and deportations of those targeted in raids are under way in agricultural fields and in so-called sanctuary cities though it is difficult so far to measure the real effects beyond the evident fear and MAGA braggadocio.
From Donald Trump himself, border czar Tom Homan and others in the administration, we have blanket statements that suggest widespread, coordinated raids across the country that are unearthing endless numbers of undocumented migrants with criminal records. But there is not a lot of official detail about the who, where and how of it all, just the news of excesses and the fear.
Whether in hyperbole about number of migrants with serious criminal records, the “victory” over Colombian acceptance of deportees, the disdain for legal procedure, the administration’s effort felt as much political and propagandistic as it did a set of changes suited for an “emergency” coming after border crossing had ebbed.
Even bringing in the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Border Protection and the U.S. Marshals service to help Immigration and Custom Enforcement forces, there appear to be about 3,000 arrests in all since the Inauguration.
In Chicago, where local officials are balking at help, the feds said they arrested nearly 1,200 in a single day, adding there are as many as 2,000 targeted individuals. But fewer than half had criminal records, more than the acknowledgement that some collateral arrests might occur. About 750 were arrested in New York on Tuesday, with again about half lacking criminal records.
At the White House, Karoline Leavitt, the new press secretary, defended the numbers, suggesting they all represented illegal acts — skipping over clear differences between criminal charges and the civil crime of lacking documents.
Despite highlighting a few individuals, including a Haitian gang leader facing U.S. charges and a handful of Venezuelan gang members, ICE is unclear how many have serious criminal records and officials said they arrested “many” Venezuelan gang members among 50 ordered held in a Denver nightclub. But then, outside Atlanta, television reported on an ICE arrest based on an overdue fine for a traffic violation.
It also is unclear whether ICE has obtained court warrants for arrests, whether emergency orders mean warrants are no longer necessary, or how the agency is making distinctions between individuals, group and family members.
The important thing seems to be speed and the images of appearing to Do Something about border issues run amok. In Chicago, television personality Dr. Phil has joined Homan to broadcast ICE raids. Of course, the important thing to those who see questionable practices at work is to support the civil rights of migrant workers and the rule of law, if not some broader moral or political outcome.
The Targets
The ICE website acknowledges only that raids are underway, and news reports are limited the most egregious records among those arrested. It has been journalists who have noted that ICE arrested about 300 a day during the Biden administration without special emergency powers. Homan’s public interviews only warn that the raids are just beginning and will widen.
Trump — who freed 1,600 Jan. 6 criminals, including those with convictions for violence — has estimated there are 13,000 criminal migrant targets, but at other times has said there are hundreds of thousands more. Homan simply says anyone among the multi-millions without permanent documents — even those with temporary status or awaiting legal asylum hearings — is an available target.
Somehow, a nation that obviously is deeply divided about who is targeted, where and how wants to know. Just as we have seen Mexico and Colombia balk this week about opening airspace to active-military deportation flights ordered under presidential emergency orders, we see absences in Chicago factories and church services or reports of ICE agent sightings outside schools in Boston and Washington as people in fear are in hiding. As an example, CNN talked with a nonprofit dropping off food to a suburban Chicago family whose two daughters are skipping elementary school, and the parents are not going to their housecleaning jobs.
Clearly, the immigration enforcement issues are morphing into the new Civil Rights movement. Multiple Trump executive orders have crossed into legally challenged orders to halt asylum and temporary protective status, to end Constitutionally guaranteed birthright citizenship, to use federal agency pressures to force compliance by sanctuary cities and states to identify and hunt the undocumented.
The Border and Beyond
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has started deploying as many at 10,000 troops, including from high-profile war-fighting units like the 82nd Airborne Division, to the southwest border, apparently to help in flying deportation flights and to string barriers. Support troops specializing in supply, logistics, security and communications are also being ordered to the border, officials said.
Indeed, the Administration reported there were 600 border crossings intercepted this week.
Sending sizable numbers of active-duty troops is a policy break with past presidents who limiting deployments along the border to reservists and National Guardsmen. There has been no explanation from Trump or new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about how deploying combat troops from posts elsewhere will maintain the aggressive, “lethal” force they promote as U.S. defense.
Officially, active-duty personnel are barred from domestic enforcement roles. But Trump clearly sees emergency rules in an “invasion” as more important and has threatened to unleash attacks on Mexican cartels to stop drugs and smuggling.
We already have seen pushback from Mexico, and for one day, from Colombia about accepting migrants who are whisked to staging areas and to countries of origin. Trump resorted to strongarm tactics of economic tariffs and visa sanctions to win compliance from Colombia. Only after the fact is Secretary of State Marco Rubio off to talk with other hemisphere countries about what expectations are.
There is little of surprise in all this other than in the timing of arrests. But there also is little detail to show how we somehow are now safer.