A week into Donald Trump’s second presidency and his efforts to combat illegal immigration, federal officers are operating with a renewed sense of mission, knowing that “nobody gets a free pass anymore.”
A dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers gathered in a Maryland parking lot before dawn Monday, then fanned out to the Washington suburbs to find their targets: a homicide suspect wanted in El Salvador, an armed robber, a migrant convicted of possessing child sexual abuse materials, and another with drug and gun convictions. Everyone was in the country illegally.
“The worst go first,” Matt Elliston, director of ICE’s Baltimore field office, stated about the agency’s enforcement priorities.
The Associated Press accompanied the officers, who provided insight into how their work has changed under a White House intent on deporting a large number of undocumented immigrants.
According to Elliston, public safety and national security threats remain the top priorities.
That is no different from the Biden administration, but a significant change has already occurred: under Trump, officers can now arrest people without legal status if they come across them while looking for migrants slated for removal. Under Joe Biden, such “collateral arrests” were prohibited.
“We are looking for public safety and national security cases. “The big difference now is that no one has a free pass,” Elliston explained.
The number of collateral arrests has fluctuated, he explained. By the end of Monday in Maryland, ICE had arrested 13 people. Nine were targets, and the remaining four were people ICE encountered throughout the morning.
Of those “collaterals,” one was convicted of aggravated theft. Another had already been deported, and two others had final orders for removal.
Changes in immigration enforcement under Trump
The administration emphasized the involvement of other agencies in immigration operations over the weekend, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, all of which are part of the Justice Department.
The acting deputy attorney general, Emile Bove, observed arrests in Chicago on Sunday, indicating the Justice Department’s growing involvement.
ICE’s daily arrests, which averaged 311 in the fiscal year ending September 30, remained relatively stable in the first few days after Trump took office, before skyrocketing to 956 on Sunday and 1,179 on Monday. If maintained, those figures would be the highest daily average since ICE began keeping records.
Trump has also lifted long-standing guidelines preventing ICE from operating in “sensitive locations” such as schools, churches, or hospitals. Many migrants and advocates are concerned that children will be traumatized if their parents are arrested in the school drop-off line, or that migrants in need of medical care will avoid going to the hospital for fear of being arrested.
Elliston dismissed those concerns, stating that ICE has rarely entered one of those locations. In his 17 years on the job, he claims to have only entered a school once to assist in the arrest of an active shooter.
He stated that the removal of other guidelines that had limited ICE operations at courthouses makes a significant difference in the agency’s work.
However, eliminating the sensitive locations policy has a less obvious impact on ICE.
For example, on Monday, the team stopped at a parking lot in the hopes of apprehending a Venezuelan gang member who was thought to be working as a delivery driver for a nearby business. Across the street was a church, and one street over was an elementary school, both of which would have prohibited parking for surveillance purposes under previous guidelines.
Certain enforcement policies have not changed.
Elliston stated that these are still targeted operations. ICE has a target list rather than randomly going to a workplace or apartment building looking for people who are in the country illegally.
“I really hate the word ‘raids’ because it gives people the wrong impression, as if we’re just arbitrarily going door to door and saying, ‘Show us your papers,'” according to him. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Elliston said he’s spent the past week on the phone, trying to dispel rumors about what ICE is doing and who is being arrested.
Since starting his job in 2022, Elliston has worked to establish relationships with elected officials and law enforcement agencies throughout Maryland, a state where many communities have sanctuary policies that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Elliston has reached out to cities to educate them on what ICE does and who officers target. He also tries to build relationships with city officials so that they feel more comfortable in informing authorities when migrants who have been detained are released. That way, ICE can acquire them.
Another thing that has not changed? When searching for someone, they may come up empty.
Three ICE officers pounded on the door of an apartment in Takoma Park, just outside Washington, asking whoever was inside to come forward.
“Miss, can you open up?” The officer said. “Could you please come to the door and we will talk to you? … We’ll have to keep coming back until we’ve cleared this address.”
Eventually, a man who lived in the apartment returned home and spoke with ICE officers. It turned out that the person they were looking for probably gave police the wrong address when he was arrested, and he did not live there.
If they can’t find a person, Elliston said they’ll keep looking.
“Looking for these guys will never stop,” he said.
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