A week into Donald Trump’s second administration and his attempts to combat illegal immigration, federal officials are functioning with a renewed sense of purpose, 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 goals.
The Associated Press followed the police, who provided insight into how their work has altered under a White House keen on deporting a large number of undocumented immigrants.
According to Elliston, public safety and national security issues remain the primary priorities.
That is no different from the Biden administration, but a significant change has already occurred: under Trump, officials can now arrest those without legal status if they come across them while seeking for migrants slated for deportation. Under Joe Biden, such “collateral arrests” were prohibited.
“We are searching for public safety and national security cases. “The big difference now is that no one has a free pass,” Elliston explained.
The amount of collateral arrests has fluctuated, he explained. By the end of Monday in Maryland, ICE had detained 13 people. Nine were targets, and the remaining four were persons ICE encountered during the morning.
Of those “collaterals,” one was convicted of serious theft. Another had already been deported, while two others had final orders for deportation.
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, watched arrests in Chicago on Sunday, indicating the Justice Department’s increased involvement.
ICE’s daily arrests, which averaged 311 in the fiscal year ended September 30, were 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 statistics.
Trump has also loosened long-standing standards preventing ICE from working in “sensitive locations” such as schools, churches, or hospitals. Many migrants and supporters are concerned that children will be traumatized if their parents are detained in the school drop-off line, or that migrants in need of medical care may avoid going to the hospital for fear of being arrested.
Elliston dismissed similar concerns, stating that ICE had rarely entered one of those facilities. 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 limitations that have limited ICE operations at courthouses made a significant difference in the agency’s activity.
However, eliminating the sensitive sites guideline has a less obvious impact on ICE.
For example, on Monday, the squad 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 neighboring 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 earlier guidelines.
Certain enforcement policies have not altered.
Elliston stated that they are still targeted activities. ICE has a target list rather than randomly going to a job or apartment building seeking for persons 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, attempting to dispel myths about what ICE is doing and who is being arrested.
Since starting his job in 2022, Elliston has tried to establish relationships with elected officials and law enforcement agencies throughout Maryland, a state where many municipalities have sanctuary policies that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Elliston has reached out to localities to educate them on what ICE does and who officers target. He also tries to create relationships with city officials so that they feel more comfortable in informing authorities when migrants who have been imprisoned 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 officials hammered on the door of a residence in Takoma Park, just outside Washington, asking anyone 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 resided in the apartment returned home and spoke with ICE authorities. It found out that the individual they were seeking for probably provided police the false 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 told me.
