ICE Arrests More Than 3,000 Illegal Aliens

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers take into custody one of 216 suspected illegal aliens arrested on March 28, 2024. (ICE)ICE

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 3,014 illegal immigrants and issued detainers on 2,277 more individuals over the past few days.

The roundup followed Trump’s executive order on securing the borders and apprehending aliens who are already in the country and have violated state and federal laws.

ICE announced in multiple enforcement updates that it made 956 arrests and 554 detainers on Sunday, 286 arrests and 421 detainers on Saturday, and 593 arrests and 449 detainers on Friday. On Monday, the agency made 1,179 arrests and lodged 853 detainers.

An immigration detainer is an ICE request asking local, state, or federal enforcement agencies to inform them before releasing a “removable alien.” The detainer also requests agencies to hold the alien for 48 hours beyond the usual release time so that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has enough time to assume custody.

The department has been posting single-day statistics of illegal immigrant arrests since Jan. 23 after the new Trump administration took office.

According to ICE, its targeted enforcement operations involve the “planned arrests of known criminal aliens who threaten national security or public safety.”

On Jan. 20, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at “securing our borders.”

The order said America has seen a “large-scale invasion at an unprecedented level” over the past four years, with millions of illegal aliens entering the United States, including foreign spies, terrorists and potential terrorists, gangs, cartels, transnational criminal organizations, and hostile actors with malicious intent.

Trump said the United States would seek to deter and prevent the entry of illegal aliens, remove “promptly all aliens who enter or remain in violation of federal law,” and pursue criminal charges “against illegal aliens who violate the immigration laws,” among other measures.

“One of my most important obligations is to protect the American people from the disastrous effects of unlawful mass migration and resettlement,” Trump said.

In an interview with EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” host Jan Jekielek on Jan. 19, Trump’s newly appointed border czar, Tom Homan, said that the administration will enforce border security and immigration laws to remove illegal aliens already ordered to exit the country by a federal judge.

“It’s a big operation,” he said. “Every day, we’re going to make a difference.

“For every criminal we take off the streets, we make the streets safer. For every child we find in sex trafficking, it’s going to save a life. For every pound of fentanyl we seize at the border ... there’s going to be less overdose deaths in this country.”

Mayors Vow to Resist

There has been resistance to the ICE arrests by several large city mayors.

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said on Monday, “My administration will not work with ICE.”

Similar comments were made by mayors in Chicago and Denver.

On Jan. 23, Ras J. Baraka, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, criticized ICE’s raid of a local establishment and detaining undocumented residents and citizens, claiming it was done “without producing a warrant.”

“One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned,” he said.

“This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees ‘the right of the people be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.’”

Cracking Down on Illegals

In addition to ICE, other federal agencies are taking measures to deal with illegal immigrants under the new Trump administration.

On Jan. 23, Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a directive that gave Department of Justice (DOJ) law enforcement officials in various agencies the authority to “investigate and apprehend illegal aliens.”

This includes the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals; and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

“Thanks to the last Administration’s open border policies, we’ve seen violent criminals and gang members terrorize American communities,” said a DHS spokesperson. “Today’s action empowers law enforcement officials at the DOJ to help identify and apprehend aliens who have illegally come into our country.

“Mobilizing these law enforcement officials will help fulfill President Trump’s promise to the American people to carry out mass deportations. For decades, efforts to find and apprehend illegal aliens have not been given proper resources. This is a major step in fixing that problem.”

According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there were more than 2 million encounters with illegal aliens at the Southwest land border every fiscal year from 2022 to 2024.

In the first three months of fiscal year 2025, there have been nearly 300,000 encounters, the lowest for this period since fiscal year 2022.

Last week, Huffman issued a directive rescinding guidelines that prevented federal officials from arresting illegal immigrants from places deemed to be sensitive, such as churches, schools, and food banks.

Schools and churches have been off-limits for such actions since 2011. The Biden administration expanded it to include places such as food banks, playgrounds, and homeless shelters.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” Huffman said.