Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested 225 individuals in a potent six-day raid in New York, a declared sanctuary city.
The immigration officials netted 45 people who had no outstanding criminal issue, the New York Daily News reports. ICE dubbed the raid “Operation Keep Safe,” and claimed in a press release that the operation ending April 14th had detained more than 60 individuals who “were previously released from local law enforcement on an active detainer.”
Detainers allow ICE to “tag” certain individuals who have been arrested on local criminal charges and who are suspected of being deportable. ICE agents can then take custody of people with detainers after they are released from local custody.
Thomas R. Decker, the New York field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, said in a press release that “ICE continues to face significant obstacles with policies created by local officials which hinder cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement.”
Indeed, the detention and deportation process does not go smoothly in sanctuary cities like New York: ICE groused that New York does not honor ICE detainers, and that agents have “no choice but to continue to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites, which will inevitably result in additional collateral arrests.”
“The recent ICE raids are a clear illustration on the ongoing, and escalating, attack on our communities by the Trump administration,” Yatziri Tovar, spokeswoman for Make the Road New York, told the New York Daily News. “This is about tearing apart families who have lived here for many years, with no regard for their deep ties to our communities.”
