Federal immigration officers launched a blitz of raids across six states on Thursday and Friday, seizing an unknown number of illegal aliens, according to multiple reports.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Gillian Christensen confirmed agents have raided homes and workplaces in and around Atlanta, Los Angeles and other cities, according to the Washington Post.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said claims, as the Post also reported Friday, that people have been targeted at checkpoints and community sweeps are “false, dangerous and irresponsible.”
“These reports create mass panic and put communities and law enforcement personnel in unnecessary danger. Any groups falsely reporting such activities are doing a disservice to those they claim to support,” ICE said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“ICE regularly conducts targeted enforcement operations during which additional resources and personnel are dedicated to apprehending deportable foreign nationals. All enforcement activities are conducted with the same level of professionalism and respect that ICE officers exhibit every day. The focus of these surges no different than the routine, targeted arrests carried out by ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams on a daily basis.”
Activist groups who work for those in the U.S. illegally said they have heard about activity in Vista, Pomona and Compton, Calif.; Austin, Dallas and Pflugerville, Texas; Alexandria and Annandale, Va.; Charlotte and Burlington, N.C.; Plant City, Fla.; the Hudson Valley region of New York; and Wichita, Kan.
ICE said the majority of those detained were adult men.
The move comes two weeks after President Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 26 for federal agents to enforce the Immigration and Nationality Act and go after illegal aliens who had previously not been deemed the focus of the Obama administration’s Priority Enforcement Program.
Last January, Obama’s DHS launched a number of raids targeting hundreds of illegal immigrants who had entered the U.S. since 2014 and evaded deportation orders.
“As I have said repeatedly, our borders are not open to illegal migration; if you come here illegally, we will send you back consistent with our laws and values,” former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson had said at the time of the sting operations.
Trump has promised to deport all criminal aliens.
