(The Epoch Times)—President Donald Trump is making good on his campaign promise to deport illegal immigrants. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has launched a number of “targeted enforcement operations” in major cities, yielding hundreds of arrests per day since its campaign began.
On day one in office, Trump issued sweeping actions to combat illegal immigration, including deployment of military personnel to the southern border and deportations targeting those with a criminal record nationwide. Additionally, Trump declared a national border emergency and issued an order to end birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens or those on temporary status visas.
Planned Operations
According to ICE’s account on social media platform X, targeted enforcement operations involve “planned arrests of known criminal aliens who threaten national security or public safety.”
Since Jan. 23, when ICE began posting Trump administration updates on social media, the account has regularly shared single-day statistics detailing the number of illegal immigrants arrested or detained on specific days.
The first update announced 538 arrests and 373 detainers lodged on Jan. 23. The next day brought slightly higher figures, with the department’s announcement of 593 arrests. On Jan. 25 and 26, the agency announced 286 and 956 arrests, respectively. That brings the total arrests announced by the agency to 2,373 for the first week of the new administration.
ICE issued a statement on Jan. 26 about the arrests, explaining that it “began conducting enhanced targeted operations today in Chicago to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.”
ICE said it was working with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
Chicago
Multiple federal agencies launched immigration enforcement operations on Jan. 26 in Chicago. Federal officials were present in the city to observe the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration enforcement, including Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
ICE did not offer figures for how many illegal immigrants it has arrested in Chicago. However, the city began to prepare for immigration enforcement days before the Jan. 26 arrests began.
Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke out about the operations in a post on X: “We’ve received reports of ICE enforcement activity in Chicago today. Please know that Chicago police were not involved. My team and I are working closely with City officials.”
Denver
The DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division worked with ICE and other federal officials to arrest 41 illegal immigrants from a “makeshift nightclub” in a Denver suburb on Jan. 26.
During the arrests, agents seized drugs—including cocaine—and weapons. The agency reported that a number of those found at the event are connected to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Houston
Houston’s DEA division posted on social media on Jan. 26 several photos of arrests carried out with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and DHS officials to make an unspecified number of arrests.
Newark
In Newark, local officials allege that ICE carried out an enforcement operation and illegally arrested workers at a local fast food distribution center, with Mayor Ras Baraka asserting that in addition to the detention of three non-citizens, some of those detained were citizens, one of which was allegedly a military veteran.
ICE Newark did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles DEA also confirmed via social media on Jan. 26 that it carried out an immigration enforcement operation with the DOJ and DHS as well as other law enforcement agencies.
Arrests of illegal immigrants have also been reported by federal agencies in San Antonio, Miami, Detroit, Omaha, Phoenix, and Atlanta.
Other Arrests
ICE has also released details on specific arrests of criminal illegal aliens, including the arrest of a man in Houston. Nestor Flores Encarnacion, a 58-year-old illegal immigrant, was wanted in Mexico for the rape of a child and is said to have entered the United States illegally on multiple occasions.
“This foreign fugitive brazenly entered the U.S. in violation of our nation’s laws on four separate occasions to evade prosecution in Mexico for allegedly raping a child,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret A. Bradford.
On the same day, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations San Francisco arrested an illegal immigrant and Guatemalan national convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor. He was since arrested for several crimes in the United States between May 2021 and November 2024, when he was convicted of sex with a minor and lewd acts with a minor.
Border Czar
Trump’s newly appointed border czar Tom Homan has taken a straightforward approach to immigration enforcement, saying in a Jan. 21 interview on CNN that ICE will prioritize the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants with a criminal record. He said, however, that the enforcement would not be limited to those illegal immigrants with a criminal background.
“That is the difference between the last administration and this administration: ICE is going to enforce immigration law. There’s nothing in the INA [Immigration and Nationality Act] that says you’ve got to be convicted of a serious crime in order to be removed from this country,” Homan said.
“[ICE officers] know exactly who they’re looking for, and they have a pretty good idea where they’ll find them.”
The Associated Press and Lawrence Wilson contributed to this report.
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