ICE targeted thousands in sweep, but so far has only arrested 35

Los Angeles — An immigration sweep targeting thousands of people nationwide resulted in only 35 arrests, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday, suggesting that the widely publicized advance notice of the raids, including prominent mention by President Donald Trump, led many people to take actions to avoid being caught.

The sweep, called Operation Border Resolve, was focused on more than 2,000 families with final orders of removal by an immigration judge. The numbers so far have fallen far short of that target.

The acting director of ICE discussed the numbers during a call with reporters, citing the wide notice given across the country.

“There were advocates, there were people in Congress sitting here giving instructions to people illegally in the country and telling them how to avoid detection,” Matthew Albence said. “There’s no way for us to quantify what impact that had, but you couldn’t turn on any TV station anywhere in this country for several weeks without this being one of the lead topics.”

Those targeted had cases that were part of an accelerated docket, in which recent arrivals were allowed to quickly present their case in front of an immigration judge, according to Albence. Of those, Albence said, 85 percent did not show up for their first hearing and were ordered removed in absentia.

Of the dozens arrested, 18 were members of families and 17 were collateral arrests, meaning they were not on the target list but were present when arrests were being made, according to ICE. Albence called the operation the “first iteration” and said it would be continuing.

The operation, forecast by Trump as a major roundup, was expected to target several major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Miami, Denver, Atlanta, Baltimore and Houston.

ICE would not detail where arrests actually took place.

Another operation, targeting those with final orders of removal within the past five years and who had criminal convictions or histories, netted 899 arrests. In the operation, which took place between May 13 and July 11, 605 of those arrests were convicted criminals and 93 had pending criminal charges, according to Albence.