RadioOnFire.com - In a massive six-day raid, immigration officials have arrested 225 people across the five boroughs of New York City and its surrounding counties across the state.
The New York Daily News reports that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) "Operation Keep Safe" arrested 163 people within less than a week between April 9 through April 14 in New York City. Amid the convicted criminals and those who faced criminal charges, 45 of them were revealed to have no criminal history.
ICE officials reveal that 180 of immigrants who were arrested across the state (and now face deportation) were all "convicted criminals or had criminal charges pending against them, but refused to release their names," per the Daily News.
The raids are in direct conflict with New York City's status as a sanctuary city, which declares that they will not hold "nonviolent inmates with detention orders or request immigration status before offering social services". Thomas Decker, the field office director for enforcement removal operations in New York stated that this causes ICE to face "significant obstacles" when working with law enforcement.
“ICE continues to face significant obstacles with policies created by local officials, which hinder cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement. Yet, with the tireless efforts of the men and women of ICE, this operation was a great success,” he said.
“The fact is that a so-called sanctuary city does not only provide refuge to those who are here against immigration law, but also provides protections for criminal aliens who prey on the people in their own communities by committing crimes at all levels.”
New York City has consistently detained incarcerated immigrants in the past if they fit under one of 180 categories, such as national security risks and involvement in terrorism and those who were accused of "serious crimes" within a five-year timespan.
“New York City will work with federal partners in the interest of public safety, but not to be an arm of immigration enforcement,” said Rosemary Boeglin, a spokeswoman for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.
60 of the people who were arrested have since been transferred into federal custody. ICE stated they consider those who were arrested and do not carry a history of criminal activities as “collateral arrests,” as a result of the City of New York's "noncooperation".
“ICE has no choice but to continue to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites, which will inevitably result in additional collateral arrests, instead of focusing on arrests at jails and prisons where transfers are safer for ICE officers and the community,” they reveal.
Immigration advocates have long argued that the increasingly aggressive deportation enforcement under the Trump administration done more to "rips hardworking families apart" rather than make communities safer.
“The recent ICE raids are a clear illustration on the ongoing, and escalating, attack on our communities by the Trump administration,” Yatziri Tovar, the spokeswoman for Make the Road New York said.
“Make no mistake: This is about tearing apart families who have lived here for many years, with no regard for their deep ties to our communities and enormous contributions to New York City and state.”
Source: nydailynews.com
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