Just days into the new Trump administration, worries spike amid a show of force on immigration

[January 25, 2025]  By MIKE CATALINI and REBECCA SANTANA

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Less than a week into his presidency, the Trump administration touted deportation efforts and published new rules Friday making it easier to remove people — part of a flurry of actions to make good on campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration. Amid officials’ latest show of force, waves of worry reverberated in parts of the country, with officials in Newark, New Jersey, lashing out over what they called illegal arrests by immigration agents.

President Donald Trump's administration portrayed U.S. military planes carrying migrants that touched down in Central America as a start to deportations and announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement made 593 arrests on Friday and 538 on Thursday. He also sent U.S. soldiers and Marines to the U.S.-Mexico border and lifted longtime rules restricting immigration enforcement near schools and churches.

Many of the ICE actions were not unusual. Similar deportation flights also took place under the Biden administration, though not using military planes. ICE averaged 311 daily arrests in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. President Joe Biden also sent active duty troops to the border in 2023, and numerous administrations have sent National Guard troops to assist Customs and Border Protection.

However, rumors of arrests and news reports or social media posts about the presence of agents sparked worries in communities around the country. Some rights groups launched plans to protect immigrants in the event of arrests at schools or workplaces. Chicago Public Schools officials on Friday mistakenly believed ICE agents had come to one of their elementary schools and put out statements to that effect before learning the agents were from the Secret Service. It heightened fears among immigrant communities in the country’s third-largest city.

There is widespread support in America for beefing up security at the southern border and undertaking some targeted deportations, particularly of people who committed violent crimes, according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That poll also found that most Americans think local police should cooperate with federal immigration authorities on deportations in at least some cases. But support falls considerably when it comes to deporting people in the country illegally who have not been convicted of a crime.

Newark officials say ICE went too far
Mayor Ras Baraka said ICE agents showed up at a business Thursday for what he called a warrantless raid and detained three “undocumented residents” as well as some U.S. citizens. He said one person was questioned even after showing military identification.

The city is just across the Hudson River from New York, and half of the population of 305,000 is Black and nearly 40% is Hispanic.

“When I got this information I was appalled, upset, angry that this would happen here, in this state, in this country,” Baraka, a Democrat who is seeking the party’s nomination for governor, said at a news conference. “We’re going to fight for all of our residents in this city, no matter what that looks like for us.”

ICE confirmed it had conducted a “targeted enforcement operation” at a Newark business and that some of the people agents encountered were U.S. citizens who were asked for identification. ICE said it could not comment further because the investigation is active.

While Trump has vowed a campaign of mass deportations, his White House border czar has repeatedly said that they will be targeted operations focused initially on specific people who have committed crimes.

Cars sit parked outside an Ocean Seafood Depot store, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, in Newark, N.J. . (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

Amy Torres, executive director of New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, disputed that what happened Thursday was a targeted approach, saying that type of language suggests “some deep intel and prior investigation.” She said her organization got a call when ICE arrived.

"If this is such a sterile and targeted operation, why was a U.S. citizen interrogated?” Torres said.

She and other officials declined to identify the business, but the owner of Ocean Seafood Depot spoke to reporters, saying the government should go after “bad people, not working people.”

Expanding “expedited removal” authority
The Trump administration said Friday that it was expanding the use of “expedited removal” authority so it can be used across the country starting right away.

“The effect of this change will be to enhance national security and public safety — while reducing government costs — by facilitating prompt immigration determinations,” the administration said in a notice in the Federal Register outlining the new rules.

“Expedited removal” gives enforcement agencies broad authority to deport people without requiring them to appear before an immigration judge. There are limited exceptions, including if they express fear of returning home and pass an initial screening interview for asylum.

Critics have said there’s too much risk that people who have the right to be in the country will be mistakenly swept up by agents and officers and that not enough is done to protect migrants who have genuine reason to fear being sent home. Friday’s notice said the person put into expedited removal “bears the affirmative burden to show to the satisfaction of an immigration officer” that they have the right to be in the U.S.

The powers were created under a 1996 law. But they weren’t really widely used until 2004, when Homeland Security said it would use expedited removal authority for people arrested within two weeks of entering the U.S. by land and caught within 100 miles (160 kilometers) of the border. That meant it was used mostly against migrants who recently arrived.

Using military planes to carry out deportations
The Trump administration is also relying on the active-duty military to help secure the border and carry out deportations. After sending about 1,500 troops to San Diego and El Paso, two Air Force C-17 cargo planes carrying migrants removed from the country touched down early Friday morning in Guatemala.

Honduras received two deportation flights Friday carrying a total of 193 people, the Foreign Ministry confirmed.

However, officials underscored that this was normal. Antonio García, vice foreign minister of Honduras, said the government has an agreement with the U.S. to accept between eight and 10 flights a week.

“The big question is how many more flights they will ask us to take,” he told the AP. “We will hear them out and we want them to hear our plans and concerns.”

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Santana reported from Washington.

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