The threatened Trump crackdown on undocumented immigrants is underway.
Estimates from the White House indicate more than 500 people have been arrested. However, Border Czar Tom Homan puts that number at more than 3,000, according to the Washington Post.
Immigration raids have been conducted in big cities such as Boston, Denver, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Miami, Washington, D.C., and Newark, N.J., reports NewsNation.
The two U.S. Senators from New Jersey, Andy Kim and Corey Booker, issued a joint statement condemning the raids.
“Actions like this one sow fear in all of our communities — and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics,” the two are quoted by InsideNJ as saying.
They vowed to work with Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark to “ensure all New Jerseyans are safe and their dignity and rights are protected.”
Baraka told USA Today that agents apprehended both undocumented immigrants and American citizens, including a U.S. military veteran “who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned. This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees ‘the right of the people be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”
An ICE spokesman responded to the mayor’s concerns saying its officers “may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting fieldwork and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today in Newark.”
The Trump administration says it is targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal backgrounds.
Fox News was embedded with agents in Boston and reported the arrests of multiple suspected gang members and violent crime offenders.
“Today we took several significant public safety threats out of our communities,” ICE acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde in Boston told Fox. “Unfortunately, a lot were released by sanctuary policies, but we’re here to tell the commonwealth and the rest of the country that we’re going to find them whether they’re released or not.”
SiLive reported on an internal memo from the NYPD which said it would not cooperate with ICE raids.
It said that a “person present in the United States without lawful authorization is a civil matter, not a crime.”
“The core principle for all members of service is to keep in mind the distinction between criminal enforcement and civil immigration enforcement,” the memo reads. “The Department investigates criminal activity without regard to a person’s immigration status.”
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