Immigration roundup that targeted 2,100 nets 35 arrests

WASHINGTON — An immigration enforcement operation that President Donald Trump said was part of an effort to deport “millions” of people from the United States resulted in 35 arrests, officials said Tuesday.

Trump billed the operation targeting families as a major show of force as the number of Central American families crossing the southern border has skyrocketed. There are about 1 million people in the U.S. with final deportation orders; the operation targeted 2,100.

Of those arrested, 18 were members of families and 17 were people in the country illegally who were encountered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. None of those arrested resulted in the separation of family, officials said.

While the effort was demonized by Democrats as a full-force drive to deport families and trumpeted by Republicans as a necessary show of force to prove there are consequences for people coming here illegally, career ICE officers described it as a routine operation, one expected to net an average of about 15% of targets.

A separate nationwide enforcement operation targeting immigrants here illegally who had criminal convictions or charges netted 899 arrests. And officers handed out 3,282 notices of inspection to businesses that may be employing people here illegally.

Acting ICE director Matthew Albence said the operations would continue, stressing the importance of enforcement. “Part of the way you stop people from coming is having a consequence to the illegal activity when you do come,” he said.

The operation targeted families who had been ordered deported by an immigration judge in 10 cities around the country who were subjected to fasttrack proceedings. It was canceled once after Trump told the media when and where it would begin.

The second effort began July 14, and again Trump announced where and when it was to start.

Albence conceded that the number was lower than for other operations. A similar operation in August 2017 netted 650 arrests over four days, including 73 family members and 120 who entered illegally as children. There were 457 others encountered during the operation who also were arrested.

Activists reported one success story in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday. Neighbors noticed ICE surveillance in the area and helped a 12-year-old boy and man avoid arrest by calling others and then linking arms around their van. ICE officers eventually called off the operation to avoid escalation.

“Nashville showed what’s possible in an organized community: immigrant families can exercise their rights and their neighbors can help them to defend their rights,” Lisa Shermannikolaus, policy director at the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, said in an emailed statement.

In Missouri, U.S.

Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver questioned why federal immigration officials broke a car window Monday and pulled a Mexican national out of his car while his girlfriend and their children were in the back seat.

ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer said the officers’ actions were justified during the arrest of 32-year-old Florencio Millan-vazquez in Kansas City on Monday. Millan-vazquez had reentered the U.S. illegally after being deported in 2011.

His girlfriend, Cheyenne Hoyt, posted a video to Facebook showing the couple asking for a warrant before Millan-vazquez would agree to leave the car. After about 30 minutes, an ICE officer broke the window and others helped drag Millan-vazquez out.

Cleaver said on Twitter he’s concerned about the use of force and trauma to the children.

On Monday, the administration announced it would vastly extend the authority of immigration officers to deport migrants without allowing them to appear before judges. Fast-track deportations now can apply to anyone in the country illegally for less than two years.

It was the second major immigration shift in eight days. Last Monday, the administration effectively banned asylum at the southern border by making anyone coming to the U.S. from a third country ineligible, with a few exceptions.

Then Tuesday, Trump threatened retribution against Guatemala after the country’s high court blocked its government from signing an asylum deal with the United States.

Trump tweeted that Guatemala has decided against signing the “safethird agreement” requiring Central American migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to instead apply for those protections in Guatemala, even though the country’s government never agreed to the arrangement.

Guatemala “has decided to break the deal they had with us on signing a necessary Safe Third Agreement. We were ready to go,” Trump complained. “Now we are looking at the ‘BAN,’” he wrote, along with tariffs, fees on remittance money Guatemalans working in the U.S. send back to their country, “or all of the above.”

Trump later painted the court ruling as a convenient excuse for the country, saying: “In other words, they didn’t want to sign it.”

President Jimmy Morales responded to the tweets with a statement posted on Facebook blaming Constitutional Court justices for upsetting Trump.