By Ted Hesson and Kristina Cooke
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s top homeland security official joined officers as they carried out an immigration arrest in New York City on Tuesday, the latest effort to promote Trump’s nationwide crackdown as enforcement has intensified in recent days.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was confirmed as secretary over the weekend, posted a video and photos of the NYC operation on X early Tuesday morning. She said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) picked up a person charged with kidnapping, assault and burglary but did not provide details on the suspect or scope of the operation.
Trump, a Republican, issued an array of executive orders to crack down on illegal immigration after taking office on Monday, including actions aimed at deporting record numbers of migrants in the U.S. without legal status. Trump says the actions are needed after millions of migrants entered during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, while critics say Trump could hurt businesses and separate families.
In a little more than a week in office, Trump rolled back Biden-era guidance that limited arrests of non-criminals, ordered other federal law enforcement to assist with immigration work, and scrapped a Biden policy that restricted enforcement at schools, churches, hospitals and other sensitive locations.
“All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said in his Jan. 20 inaugural address, calling illegal immigration an “invasion” and declaring a national emergency.
The Trump administration stepped up immigration arrests in recent days with about 1,000 on Sunday and 1,200 on Monday, according to ICE, far above the daily average of 311 in fiscal year 2024.
The nationwide operations included arrests in Chicago on Sunday where a TV personality known as “Dr. Phil” documented with a film crew.
The increase came after the agency sent an email to staff that said the Trump administration was “demanding” 1,200 arrests on Sunday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The arrest goals had been discussed on internal ICE calls, a second person familiar with the matter said.
White House spokesperson Steven Cheung criticized a Washington Post report on Sunday about arrest quotas for ICE officers as “fake news.”
“Any reports of ‘quotas’ being used in President Trump’s ongoing mass deportations effort are simply false,” a White House official said. “Field offices are now being encouraged to do their job and fulfill President Trump’s promise to deport violent criminal illegal aliens who don’t belong in our country, a stark change from the previous administration.”
Trump struggled to ramp up deportations during his 2017-2021 presidency. Biden’s administration deported more people in fiscal year 2024 than any single Trump year, ICE statistics show.
ICE has not provided detailed statistics on the arrests of alleged criminal offenders since Trump took office.
The operation in New York involved agents from ICE’s investigative arm, known as Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which normally focuses on transnational crime, including human trafficking, child exploitation and drug smuggling, as well as personnel from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), according to photos posted to social media.
Trump’s order called for HSI and some other federal agencies to reorient their work toward immigration enforcement. Some 300 HSI agents have been detailed to work directly on immigration, one of the sources and a third person familiar with the matter said. HSI has 7,100 special agents worldwide, according to the agency.
“If you’re a criminal investigator, you don’t want to do civil immigration enforcement,” the person said. “That’s not your job.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, both Democrats, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Both leaders have said in recent months that ICE should be able to arrest and remove migrants who are dangerous or criminal, including at least some who are accused but not convicted of crimes.
Noem was scheduled to give remarks in Washington to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security workforce later on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington, Jonathan Allen in New York, and Rich McKay)
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