CHICAGO — Immigration enforcement operations unfolded across multiple cities Sunday, marking what President Donald Trump has called the beginning of an era of mass deportations that would primarily target migrants with criminal backgrounds but in which concerns remain that migrants with no criminal histories will be swept up, as well.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told NBC News on Sunday that several people convicted of serious offenses, including murder and sex crimes, were apprehended. He added that collateral arrests — detentions of people without criminal convictions who were present during the raids — would occur.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement Sunday that its enhanced operations aim to “enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.”
Homan said the people arrested Sunday in Chicago included six convicted of serious sex offenses, multiple gang members and two others who were previously convicted of murder and aggravated sexual battery.
He also elaborated on the possibility of operations in locations such as churches and schools after Trump rescinded previous long-standing guidance that had designated such areas as “sensitive locations.” Decisions to enter those spaces would be made on a “case-by-case basis,” Homan said.
“We’ve got to put America’s safety first,” said Homan, who was in Chicago for the enforcement operations.
The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing four people with knowledge, that Trump officials have directed ICE officials to arrest 1,200 to 1,500 people a day, up from a few hundred.
Asked about the reporting, Homan told NBC News the goal is to “get as many criminals as possible.”
“I don’t have a quota,” he said. “My instructions to them: Arrest as many as you can.”
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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker express mixed feelings about the enforcement actions. Pritzker said Sunday on CNN that he supports deporting people convicted of violent crimes but disagrees with targeting law-abiding people.
“Why are we going after them?” he asked. “These are not people who are causing problems in our country, and what we need is a path to citizenship for them.
“We need to secure our border. We need to get rid of the violent criminals, but we also need to protect people, at least the residents of Illinois and all across the nation who are just doing what we hope that immigrants will do,” he added.
Drug Enforcement Administration offices in other cities said on social media Sunday that the agency helped conduct operations that arrested or detained people in the country illegally.
The DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division said it, along with its federal and local partners, conducted an operation at a “makeshift nightclub” early Sunday in Adams County, Colorado, where nearly 50 people in the country without authorization were taken into custody.
The DEA said many of them had connections to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
A spokesperson for the agency said later Sunday that at least 100 law enforcement officers took part in the early morning raid and that the operation had a federal search warrant.
The DEA said that 49 people were in the location when the warrant was served and that 41 of them were found to be in the country without authorization. The officer did not release any other information about the statuses of the 41, other than that they were a mix of men and women and that they were taken to a nearby ICE processing facility.
The officer said that several handguns, as well as cash and drugs, were found at the scene and that gang members there “were trying to flood the Denver metro area with fake fentanyl pills.”
The investigation into the nightclub has been ongoing since August under the Biden administration, the officer said.
In California, the DEA’s Los Angeles division said on social media that it was assisting other federal agencies with “enhanced targeted operations throughout” the city. The agency’s office in San Diego also said it was assisting with immigration enforcement efforts.
The DEA’s Phoenix division and its Atlanta division also both said on social media that they were assisting with immigration operation efforts.
It was not immediately clear how many people in total were arrested or detained in the operations Sunday, nor how many of those arrested had criminal records or convictions. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
In a series of posts on social media Sunday, the White House said ICE agents arrested several people in the last few days who it said have been convicted or suspected of or wanted in connection with crimes.
The arrests were made by ICE divisions in Washington, California, Louisiana, New York and other states, the posts said.
Austin Mullen and Sarah Ford contributed.
