Twenty-five members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had been arrested by ICE on Monday, in accordance with a senior administration official.
In whole, there have been 969 arrests on simply that day, together with a convicted member of MS-13 whom ICE arrested in Dallas.
“Border czar” Tom Homan has stated it is all a part of the Trump administration’s effort to ship a “clear” message.
“There’s penalties [for] coming into the nation illegally,” he advised ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday.
“If we do not present there’s penalties, you are by no means going to repair the border downside,” he added. “So, in case you’re in a rustic illegally, you bought an issue.”
Whereas the Trump administration stated it will give attention to deporting immigrants with out authorized standing who’ve dedicated violent offenses first, as raids and mass deportations have continued, administration officers have stated these with out felony information have additionally been deported. White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended what was taking place on the second Trump administration’s first White Home press briefing on Tuesday.
“Day by day, Individuals are safer due to the violent criminals that President Trump’s administration is eradicating from our communities,” Leavitt stated, including that Trump “is targeted on launching the most important mass deportation operation in American historical past of unlawful criminals.
“And you’re a person, a international nationwide, who illegally enters the USA of America, you’re, by definition, a felony,” Leavitt stated.
When requested in the course of the briefing which immigrants the Trump administration considers to have a “felony file,” Leavitt stated, “All of them as a result of they illegally broke our nation’s legal guidelines, and subsequently they’re criminals. So far as this administration goes. I do know the final administration did not see it that approach, so it is a large tradition shift in our nation to view somebody who breaks our immigration legal guidelines as a felony. However that is precisely what they’re.”
The arrests occurred as Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem joined an immigration enforcement operation in New York Metropolis on Tuesday, through which she witnessed each felony and civil enforcement operations. Of the operations Noem witnessed, a felony case concerned a member of Tren de Aragua, in accordance with sources conversant in the actions in New York.
Noem, who was confirmed as secratary of the Division of Homeland Safety over the weekend, has stated the Trump administration will “empower our courageous women and men in regulation enforcement to do their jobs and take away felony aliens and unlawful gangs from our nation.”
ABC Information’ Mary Bruce and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.