Jan. 27 (UPI) — Nearly 1,000 people were arrested by federal agencies in a blitz to enforce immigrations policies across the United States, according to multiple reports.
On Sunday, 956 arrests were made and 554 “detainers lodged” in a number of locations stretched out across the country, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
“We’re prioritizing criminal aliens,” White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday. “There’s going to be a point where we have to open the aperture to fugitives.”
Reports of “enhanced targeted operations” by ICE in Chicago on Sunday joined immigration enforcement actions in Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Austin and Omaha, Neb.
Today, members of the #DEA and our @TheJusticeDept partners assisted @DHSgov and other federal law enforcement partners with their #immigration enforcement efforts. @DEAHQ pic.twitter.com/03EQQNTB5D— DEAOmaha (@DEAOmahaDiv) January 26, 2025
The joint federal effort overseen by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove included the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other federal prosecutors.
“You’re going to see the numbers steadily increase, the number of arrests nationwide as we open up the aperture,” said Homan. “Right now, it’s concentrating on public safety threats, national security threats. That’s a smaller population.”
Homan and Bove were on the ground in Chicago, reports say, along with television personality Dr. Phil.
“We had all of government law enforcement today to focus on public safety and national security threats in Chicago,” added Homan.
It extended as far away as Honolulu on the Hawaiian islands, the island of Puerto Rico and added to similar raids days ago in Newark, N.J. and other parts of the northeast totaling more than 500 reported arrests. However, one of the arrested at a New Jersey seafood store was a U.S. military veteran.
Last week, the U.S. military commenced its first deportation flights for illegal migrants under President Donald Trump’s flurry of new federal orders — some of which have been called “blatantly unconstitutional” by a Reagan-appointed judge.
ICE officials are expected to be in Chicago for the new few days to shore up efforts.
“The federal government is not very clear,” said Chicago’s 2nd ward Alderman Michael Rodriguez. “There is some sign that they’re going after targeted individuals, but in our experience, whenever you go after anyone, other people, however innocent — significantly innocent — get caught up in that.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has voiced the rage of Democrats in vowing to protect the constitutional rights of immigrants. He said if the Trump administration is going after only criminals, “we’re all for it.”
“They’re going after people who are law-abiding, who are holding down jobs, who have families here, who may have been here for a decade or two decades,” the two-term Democratic governor stated.
Meanwhile, Mayor Brandon Johnson said that Chicago police were not involved with the sting, adding his office was working closely with city officials.
“We will not intervene or interfere with any other government agencies performing their duties,” read part of a statement by the Chicago Police Department, adding it “does not share information with federal immigration authorities.”
Sources told CNN ICE field offices have a quota of 75 arrests per day setting the stage to surpass the number of daily arrests in the past year and striking fear into communities.
“Children don’t want to go to school. They’re afraid to go to school,” AnnaMarie Bena, senior vice president of the nonprofit U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, told CNN. “They’re hearing from their parents, they’re hearing from other community members.”
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union highlighted a number of scenarios and resources for those seeking aid or other information with threats of further immigration raids and detainments.
Bena added when it gets to elementary school children are petrified to go to school, “I think that really speaks to a lot about what’s happening in the community.”
Meanwhile, an estimated 700 people on Sunday gathered near Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas to protest Trump’s hardline crackdowns and approach to immigration.
“What we saw is a coordinated effort to scoop up folks who have criminal allegations against them, or criminal convictions, and they are here in the country illegally,” security expert Phil Andrew told CBS News. “What the administration has said is that they’re targeting folks who have these records to remove them, and that’s what they’ve committed to in these early stages of the new administration.”
In Colorado during Sunday morning raids, ICE arrested 49 alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, according to the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division.
Officials claimed “at least” 41 of those arrested were in the U.S. illegally.
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations conducted 113,431 administrative arrests in the last fiscal year amounting to roughly 310 arrests a day across all U.S. field offices, according to an agency report.
Chicago’s mayor, meanwhile, joined other officials in urging the public to “know their constitutional rights,” Johnson said on social media.
The National immigrant Justice Center advised to first “create a safety plan” and to “defend your rights.”
“So the fact is that these fearful raids the raids, these sinister raids are unjust, and they’re causing mayhem in our communities, and it’s not right,” said Rodriguez, the Chicago city councilman. “And we’re going to fight back on that.”
The ICE arrests arrived amid a brief diplomatic spat with Colombia over deportation flights with migrants on U.S. military aircraft were blocked from landing in a disagreement veering into active threats of costly tariffs on both sides.
