Hundreds of immigrants arrested in
'routine' U.S. enforcement surge
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[February 11, 2017]
By Sharon Bernstein and Kristina Cooke
(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.
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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."
In a conference call with reporters, he said that such actions were
routine, pointing to one last summer in Los Angeles under former
President Barack Obama.
"The rash of these recent reports about ICE checkpoints and random
sweeps, that’s all false and that’s dangerous and irresponsible," Marin
said. "Reports like that create a panic.”
He said that of the people arrested in Southern California, only 10 did
not have criminal records. Of those, five had prior deportation orders.
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![](../images/021117pics/news_c5.jpg)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detain a
suspect as they conduct a targeted enforcement operation in Los
Angeles, California, U.S. on February 7, 2017. Courtesy Charles
Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via REUTERS
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Michael Kagan, a professor of immigration law at the University of
Nevada at Las Vegas, said immigration advocates are concerned that
the arrests could signal the beginning of more aggressive
enforcement and increased deportations under Trump.
"It sounds as if the majority are people who would have been
priorities under Obama as well," Kagan said in a telephone
interview. "But the others may indicate the first edge of a new wave
of arrests and deportations."
Trump recently broadened the categories of people who could be
targeted for immigration enforcement to anyone who had been charged
with a crime, removing an Obama-era exception for people convicted
of traffic misdemeanors, Kagan said.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Calif., and Kristina
Cooke in San Francisco; Writing by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by
Peter Henderson and Leslie Adler)
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