ICE begins toned- down raids
Officials: Public disclosure spurs tactic changes
A small number of coordinated federal raids targeting undocumented migrant parents and their children took place over the weekend, the beginning of the Trump administration’s plan to swiftly enforce deportation orders against some 2,000 recently arrived migrants who are not eligible to remain in the country.
Only a handful of arrests appeared to take place, and they were reported in just a few cities. That was much different than the nationwide show of force that had originally been planned, in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were expected to fan out in unison Sunday morning across immigrant communities in major cities. But the authorities said more arrests would follow through the week.
The plans for the operation were changed at the last minute because of news reports that had tipped off immigrant communities about what to expect, according to several current and former Department of Homeland Security officials. In addition to worries over effectiveness, law enforcement officials said they worried that the unusual public disclosure of the plan endangered officers.
Instead of a large simultaneous sweep, the authorities created a secondary plan for a smaller and more diffuse scale of apprehensions to roll out over roughly a week. Individual ICE field offices were given the discretion to decide when to begin, one official said.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan would not answer questions about the operation Sunday.
The first reports of ICE activity came in Friday and Saturday. In Chicago, a mother was apprehended with her daughters, but the family was immediately released under supervision according to a person familiar with the operation. ICE agents approached at least one other home in the area, but the woman inside refused to answer the door, according to local news reports.
In New York, agents attempted two arrests Saturday in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn and a third in East Harlem, according to the
New York Mayor’s Office of Immigration Affairs.
A teenager who lives with her parents in Passaic, N. J., said she was awakened at about 1 a. m. Sunday by a knock on the door from people she believed to be ICE agents. Having seen numerous “know your rights” posts on Instagram, she knew not to open it.
“They said, ‘ We need to talk to you, can you come outside, can you open the door?’ I said, ‘ Do you have permission to come inside my house, do you have a paper?’” she recounted. “They said, ‘ We’re not trying to come inside your house, we just want to speak with you.’ And I said, ‘ No, I’m not coming outside.”
After some persistence, she said, the door- knockers left. But at 5 a. m., more arrived, now surrounding the house with flashlights and banging on the door and window. Liza ran upstairs to be with her parents, and they hid with the lights off. She said she was “too scared to look outside” and was unable to see any uniforms the people may have been wearing. Eventually they left again.
Though millions of people live in the U. S. without documentation and are periodically targeted for deportation, the latest raids are aimed primarily at families from Central America who have been arriving in large numbers since fall. With President Donald Trump repeatedly thwarted in his attempts to slow the ongoing surge, the raids aim to deport parents and children who are not eligible to stay in the country — some within months after their arrival — as a way to deter others from coming.
A number of undocumented immigrants took measures over the weekend to avoid interacting with the authorities — staying home and not answering the door — but some will not have that option when the work week begins Monday, suggesting that agents may be more successful at making arrests.
“My boss said we should be on alert, because ICE may show up, but I also have to go to work,” said Arcenio, an undocumented immigrant in the New York borough of Queens. He was standing on Roosevelt Avenue with his wife, Elizabeth, as a group of about 200 immigrant activists and politicians marched by, protesting the raids and chanting “Stand Up! Fight Back!”
“I can’t stay home all day,” Arcenio said. “My children need food. I need to pay rent. We have to keep living our lives. We know that there is a risk we won’t see our children when we close our apartment door. I really don’t want to think about it.”
Three of his Americanborn children — two boys, 12 and 8, and a 4- year- old girl — fidgeted next to the couple. Their youngest, a 2month- old girl, rested in her baby carrier.
“The little ones don’t understand what’s happening, they are too young,” he said. “My oldest does. He watches the news and comes and asks me, ‘ Dad, why do they want to separate us? Why do they want to deport you?’” Arcenio said with a sad smile. “He knows we don’t have papers. He’s afraid I may not come back every time I leave the house.”