U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Sunday began targeted enforcement operations across Texas, following through on Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to crackdown swiftly on people who may be in the country without legal status.
On Sunday evening, an ICE spokesperson confirmed to The Texas Newsroom that the operations were underway in North Texas.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement along with our federal law enforcement partners began conducting enhanced targeted operations today in North Texas and the state of Oklahoma to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities,” the ICE spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
ICE agents arrested 84 individuals in several cities, including Dallas, Irving Arlington, Fort Worth, Garland and Collin County, according to the ICE spokesperson. Those arrested were taken to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations field office in Dallas for processing.
Targeted operations were also reportedly conducted in Austin and the Rio Grande Valley. The ICE spokesman could not immediately confirm additional arrests in those areas.
Trump, who took office on Monday, promised during his campaign for re-election to undertake an unprecedented deportation operation. Last week, the president signed numerous executive orders with the intent to designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, declare a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and end so-called birthright citizenship
Members of Trump’s administration have said people with criminal histories would be prioritized.
In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, border czar Tom Homan said they were prioritizing public safety threats and national security threats. But he added that anyone in the country without legal status could be arrested, even if they don’t fall into this group.
"There's consequences [for] entering the country illegally," Homan said. "If we don't show there's consequences, you're never going to fix the border problem.”
He also warned of “collateral arrests” of other people without legal status who ICE may encounter during these raids: "When we find him, he's going to be with others [and] if they're in the country illegally, they're coming too.”
The Texas Newsroom is a public radio journalism collaboration that includes NPR, KERA in North Texas, Houston Public Media, KUT in Austin, Texas Public Radio in San Antonio and other stations across the state.