U.S. federal immigration agents arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least four states this week in what officials on Friday called routine enforcement actions.
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The enforcement actions took place in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and surrounding areas, said David Marin, director of enforcement and removal for the Los Angeles field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Only five of 161 people arrested in Southern California would not have been enforcement priorities under the Obama administration, he said.
The agency did not release a total number of detainees. The Atlanta office, which covers three states, arrested 200 people, while the Chicago office, which oversees six, arrested 200, a spokesman for the office, said. The 161 arrests in the Los Angeles area were made in a region that included seven highly populated counties, Marin said.
"The Trump administration has now doubled down on its war on our communities,” read a statement from Make the Road NY, which works with Latino and working class communities, after confirming the detention of five Staten Island residents. “These raids have the explicit purpose of tearing families apart. Our communities are understandably extremely concerned, but also resilient. We are here to stay, and we will fight back."
Marin called the five-day operation an "enforcement surge."
In a conference call with reporters, he said that such actions were routine, pointing to one last summer in Los Angeles under former President Barack Obama.
"The rash of these recent reports about ICE checkpoints and random sweeps, that’s all false and that’s dangerous and irresponsible," Marin said. "Reports like that create a panic.”
He said that of the people arrested in Southern California, only 10 did not have criminal records. Of those, five had prior deportation orders.
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Congress immediately responded with a letter to the head of ICE demanding a meeting.
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“These raids have struck fear in the hearts of the immigrant community as many fear that President Trump’s promised ‘deportation force’ is now in full-swing,” read the letter.
Trump recently broadened the categories of people who could be targeted for immigration enforcement to anyone who had been charged with a crime, removing an Obama-era exception for people convicted of traffic misdemeanors.
"It sounds as if the majority are people who would have been priorities under Obama as well," Kagan said in a telephone interview. "But the others may indicate the first edge of a new wave of arrests and deportations."
In reaction to the raids, hundreds took to the streets in New York City and Austin, Texas on Friday evening, after protesters in Phoenix and Los Angeles blocked traffic in similar protests Thursday. Major demonstrations are planned for this weekend in New York and Washington, D.C. under the banner of #NoBanNoWallNoRaids, which was trending on Twitter Friday.