Silver Spring, MD. (AP) – A week in Donald Trump’s second Presidency and his efforts to give up illegal immigration, federal officers operate a new sense of mission, knowing that “no one is getting a free omission anymore.”
A dozen immigration officers and customs law enforcement agencies gathered before dawn on Monday in Maryland, then broke up in Washington’s suburbs to find their goals: someone wanted in Salvador, a man convicted of armed robbery, migrant, found guilty of possessing a material for sexual abuse of children and another with drugs and weapons. Everyone was in the country illegally.
“The worst is going first,” said Matt Eliston, director of the ICE Baltimore Field Field, for the priorities of the agency’s implementation.
The Associated Press accompanied the officers who offered a view of how their work had changed as the White House to deport a large number of immigrants living in the United States without permission.
People who consider public safety and national security threats are still a top priority, Eliston said.
This is no different from the administration of Biden, but a big change is already conquered: with Trump, officers can now arrest people without legal status if they come across them while looking for migrants aimed at removing. Joe Biden such “secured arrests” were banned.
“We are looking for these cases of public safety, national security. The big difference is that no one has a free pass anymore, “Eliston said.
The number of security arrests has hesitated, he said. By the end of Monday, Ice has arrested 13 people. Of these, nine were whole, and the other four were people who came across in the morning.
Of these “collateral”, one had an aggravated sentence for theft. Another was already deported once, and the other two had final removal orders.
Changes in Immigration to Trump Immigration
The administration stressed the participation of other agencies in immigration operations over the weekend, including the FBI, the administration of drug application and the alcohol, tobacco, firearm and explosives office, which are part of the Ministry of Justice.
Emil Bowv, the current deputy prosecutor, monitors arrests on Sunday in Chicago, a sign of the growing participation of the Ministry of Justice.
The daily arrests of ICE, which are an average of 311 during the year, ending on September 30, remained quite stable in the first days after Trump took office, after which he dramatically turned Sunday to 956 and Monday to 1.179. If supported, these numbers will mark the highest average, as the ice has started to record.
Trump has also canceled long -standing guidelines that limit ice from work in “sensitive places” such as schools, churches or hospitals. This decision is worried that many migrants and defenders who fear that the children will be injured by seeing their parents arrested in the school dropping line or that migrants in need of medical attention will not go to the hospital for fear from arrest.
Eliston stepped back to these fears, saying it was extremely rarely icy to enter one of these places. In his 17 years of work, he said he had only entered school once, and it was to help stop an active shooter.
He said the removal of other guidelines that limit the ice operations in the courts makes a bigger difference in the work of the agency.
But to get rid of sensitive locations politics affects ice in more fine ways.
For example, at one point on Monday, the team stopped in the parking lot, hoping to catch a Venezuelan member of the band, who was thought to be working as a delivery driver in a nearby business. On the other side of the street was a church, and a street above is a primary school, which, under the previous directions, would make it a parking limits to make an observation.
Some implementation policies have not changed
What has not changed, said Eliston is that these are targeted operations. ICE has a list of people who will follow, unlike indiscriminately go to work or residential building who are looking for people in the country illegally.
“I really hate the word” rabbits “because it creates the wrong impression on people, as if we just go from door to door and say,” Show us your documents, “he said. “Nothing can be further than the truth.”
During the week, since Trump returned to service, Eliston said he was constantly on the phone, trying to dispel rumors about what ice was doing and who was arrested.
After starting his work in 2022, Eliston said he was working to build relations with selected employees and law enforcement authorities in Maryland, a country where many communities have the policies of the sanctuary that limit their cooperation with the federal immigration bodies.
Eliston turned to the cities to teach them what the ice is doing and whom the officers are chasing. He is also trying to build relationships with the city authorities so that they feel more comfortable to give to the authorities when migrants will be detained who will be released. This way, the ice can get them.
Another thing that has not changed? Sometimes, when they look for someone, they come out empty.
In a residential building in Tacom Park, just outside Washington, three ice officials hit the apartment door, asking for anyone to go inside the door.
“Miss, can you open yourself?” – said the officer. “Can you come to the door and talk to you? … We will have to continue to return until we clear this address. “
In the end, a man who lived in the apartment went home and talk to the ice officers. It turned out that the person they were looking for was probably giving the police the wrong address when he was arrested and he did not live there.
If they can’t find a person, Eliston said, they continue to search.
“The search for these guys will never stop,” he said.
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