Immigration Agents Make 225 Arrests During Six-Day Crackdown in New York Area

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said its "Operation Keep Safe in New York" resulted in 225 arrests over six days in the New York area during early April.

ICE's director for Enforcement and Removal Operations in New York, Thomas Decker, said the agency could make that number of arrests every week if his agents had more help from the NYPD. But he said local sanctuary city policies prevent that.

"If we...had the cooperation of New York City, if we were able to work with the local PD and the Department of Corrections, these would be individuals that we could get right at the jail," he explained.

New York City's sanctuary city law prevents its police and jails from turning over immigrants unless they're on a terrorist watch list, or they've been convicted of one of 170 serious offenses. Decker said, however, that the city's list is too restrictive.

Rosemary Boeglin, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, said the city works with federal partners on public safety, but not "to be an arm of immigration enforcement."

Of the 225 arrests made through April 14, 163 were in New York City, 36 were on Long Island and 19 were in Westchester. The rest were in Orange, Rockland and Dutchess counties.

ICE claims 80 percent of the immigrants picked up during "Operation Keep Safe in New York" were either convicted criminals or were charged with crimes. They include a Haitian national convicted of manslaughter and a Jamaican immigrant who's a registered sex offender. But ICE didn't provide a precise breakdown of which arrests were based on charges, rather than convictions. 

The Trump administration has been arresting immigrants who have yet to be convicted of the crimes they're charged with, a break from the Obama administration's more selective policy.

Walter Barrientos, Long Island Organizing Director for the advocacy group Make the Road New York, challenged the government's decision to go after so many immigrants convicted of minor crimes and misdemeanors. He said it's a waste of resources.

"People who live here because they have to support their children and they have to drive them to school end up on these lists as 'criminals' for very minor offenses such as driving without a license," he explained. 

He also claimed young Latino men are frequently charged with being in gangs based on faulty information.