Feds conduct raids on illegal immigrants nationwide, including sanctuary cities

From The Trussville Tribune staff reports

TRUSSVILLE –In what is being called the first national crackdown of the Trump administration, federal agents from the U.S. Immigration department conducted raids in at lease six states last week, the Washington Post reported. Several sanctuary cities were included in the enforcement.

In a departure from the previous administration’s policy, the raids not only netted people with serious criminal records, but also people with minor criminal records and those with no criminal history other than being in the country illegally. The deportation of those without serious criminal backgrounds is said have sent shock waves through the illegal immigrant community.

According to the report, Trump changed the Obama policy of only targeting serious criminals, broadening the scope of who ICE officials can detain and deport.

Immigration officials confirmed to the Post that agents this week raided homes and workplaces in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, the Los Angeles area, North Carolina and South Carolina, netting hundreds of people. Immigration activists said raids were conducted in at least four more states.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said the raids, which began Monday and ended Friday at noon, found undocumented immigrants from a dozen Latin American countries. Christensen also said the vast majority of those taken into custody were serious criminals.

“We’re talking about people who are threats to public safety or a threat to the integrity of the immigration system,” Christensen told the Post, noting that the majority of those detained were serious criminals, including some who had been convicted of murder and domestic violence.

David Marin, ICE’s field director in the Los Angeles area, said in a conference call with reporters Friday that 75 percent of the approximately 160 people detained in the operation this week had felony convictions; the rest had misdemeanors or were in the United States illegally. Officials said Friday night that 37 of those detained in Los Angeles has been deported to Mexico.

“Dangerous criminals who should be deported are being released into our communities,” Marin said.