NYC Immigration Arrests: 41 Taken Into Custody Last Week

This story has been updated to reflect Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's correct title.

NEW YORK CITY, NY — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 41 people in the New York area during operations conducted between Monday and Friday last week, the department said Monday. Of those, 38 "had criminal convictions," according to ICE.

"ICE deportation officers conduct targeted enforcement operations every day in locations around the country as part of the agency's ongoing efforts to protect the nation, uphold public safety and protect the integrity of our immigration laws and border controls," the agency said in a statement.

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"These are existing, established fugitive operations teams," the statement continued. "ICE does not conduct sweeps, checkpoints or raids that target aliens indiscriminately."

According to ICE, those arrested included:

• An El Salvadorian citizen "with a criminal conviction for assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketerring and self-admitted MS-13 gang member"
• A Jamaican citizen convicted of "first degree sexual assault of a victim under the age of 11"
• And a Mexican convicted of "first degree sexual assault of a victim under the age of 11"

Asked for further detail about the arrests, an ICE spokesperson said Monday that those detained had been convicted of crimes including sexual assault, robbery, rape, driving while intoxicated, and other, unlisted crimes.

On Monday, Deborah Axt, the co-executive director of immigrant rights group Make the Road New York, said the information ICE released was "outrageously incomplete."

"It lacks any contextual information about mitigating factors surrounding the criminal convictions, the timing of the criminal convictions listed, and positive work that the individuals indicated may have contributed to our communities in the intervening period of time," she added. "The agency's effort to cast immigrants as criminals is an extension of the hateful rhetoric that President Trump used throughout his campaign. We demand that ICE cease its raids."

Similarly, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is "calling on ICE to release information about the location of the raids and details of the people who were arrested.”

“Targeting law-abiding innocent immigrant families whose only wrongdoing was crossing the border to give their children a better life, instead of focusing on removing those who have been convicted of violent crimes, is a waste of limited resources and undermines law enforcement in communities across the country," Schumer said.

In a Jan. 25 executive order, Trump directed DHS to "hire 10,000 additional immigration officers." The order also said the agency should "prioritize for removal those aliens" who "have committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense." The order did not, however, define what a "criminal offense" is.

On Monday, John Kelly, who heads the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said that last week, ICE arrested 680 individuals nation-wide "who pose a threat to public safety, border security or the integrity of our nation's immigration system."

"President Trump has been clear in affirming the critical mission of DHS in protecting the nation and directed our Department to focus on removing illegal aliens who have violated our immigration laws, with a specific focus on those who pose a threat to public safety, have been charged with criminal offenses, have committed immigration violations or have been deported and re-entered the country illegally," Kelly said.

But immigrant rights activists have suggested last week's arrests represent the beginning of a larger crackdown on those living in the country without documentation.

In a Sunday statement, Steve Choi, the head of the New York Immigration Coalition, said his organization was "horrified and angered by the ICE raids and activity in the greater New York area."

"Shame on ICE for putting New York’s immigrant communities — four million strong — in a state of panic," Choi said. "These arrests do nothing but tear families apart, hobble our economies, and corrode the bonds of trust that tie our communities together — all under the false pretense of 'public safety.'"

And Axt, the Make the Road activist, focused on the fact that Kelly "includes in the category of 'public safety threats' people who 'violated our nation's immigration laws' or 're-entered the country after being deported.'"

"This unconscionably over-broad definition is clearly designed to mislead the American public and turn them against the immigrants being targeted through these raids," Axt said in a statement. "Make no mistake: this definition is broad enough to cover nearly anyone who came to this country to survive, to put food in their children's mouths, or to flee violence and persecution."

An ICE spokesperson declined to comment Monday on whether Kelly's remarks suggested those guilty only of being in the country without documents were now being targeted by increased ICE enforcement.

On Sunday, Steven Miller, a top adviser to Trump and one of reported authors of the president's executive orders on immigration, was asked about that specific point by journalist Chuck Todd.

"How do you define a criminal act by an undocumented immigrant in this country?" Todd asked. "Just being undocumented here illegally, is that enough of a criminal act to get you deported under this order?"

"The order describes a criminal offense which would typically mean anything from a misdemeanor to a felony," Miller said in response. "In particular, the emphasis is on crimes that threaten or endanger public safety."

"So it sounds to me as if you're saying there is no — you did not tell ICE workers who to prioritize," Todd said later in the exchange.

"The president has been clear, unequivocal and explicit in saying that we are going to focus on removing individuals who pose a threat to public safety including people who are gang members who have been charged with criminal offenses, who have been multiple immigration violations, who have been deported and reentered," Miller said.

In an attempt to get Miller to shed additional light on the Trump administration's overall feelings on immigration, Todd also asked the adviser if he thinks "there's too much legal immigration in this country."

"I believe that we should have a program in which American workers are given jobs first," Miller responded. "If you have an open job in this country, a U.S. citizen or existing legal permanent resident ought to have the ability to make the first application for that job."

Image courtesy ICE (Note: The image is not related to the enforcement operations conducted this past week)