Insisting Detentions Routine, ICE Confirms 50-Plus Undocumented Immigrants Detained In Austin, San Antonio

AUSTIN, TX — Insisting their recent bolstered enforcement in the area is performed on a "regular basis," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Monday released a timeline of past enforcement action in rounding up undocumented immigrants in communities nationwide, and confirming 51 local residents have been detained.

The Mexican consul general in Austin previously reported that more than 50 undocumented residents from Mexico have been rounded up in recent days. The numbers of other foreign nationals netted in Austin — which has among its populace a diaspora from throughout Latin America, Asia, Europe, Africa and other countries — is unknown.

Critics of the recent ICE raids have posited the action as an offshoot of Donald Trump's stated crackdown on undocumented immigrants entering the country illegally, an assertion ICE has repeatedly denied. The uptick in enforcement also comes as Gov. Greg Abbott has made the banning of so-called "sanctuary cities" a priority — an "emergency item," as he put it during his recent "State of the State Address."

Since last week, protests and vigils have been an everyday occurrence throughout Austin from those voicing opposition to fortified ICE action. But ICE has repeatedly denied the recent enforcement is part of Trump-led national crackdown or even out of the ordinary from its normal activities.

In its statement, ICE stopped short of calling such claims "fake news," a catch-all term in sudden vogue amid the current political climate in disputing contrasting views. In answering accusations of bolstered crackdowns, the notoriously secretive agency — invariably tight-lipped when reporters require timely information and details on journalistic deadline — was strident in its thinly veiled critique of news outlets struggling to keep up with their activities in the absence of daily information or updates from them.

In essence, ICE suggested the current anxiety over immigration enforcement is the media's fault, not theirs: "Reports of ICE checkpoints and sweeps are false, dangerous and irresponsible," ICE officials wrote in their statement. "These reports create panic and put communities and law enforcement personnel in unnecessary danger. Any groups falsely reporting such activities are doing a disservice to those they claim to support."

Instead, here's the standard ICE protocol, officials suggested: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) conducts targeted fugitive operations on a regular basis, both nationwide and locally in 24 field offices across the U.S. These enforcement operations, which are often referred to as Operation Cross Check, target public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, and individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws, including those who re-entered the country after being deported and immigration fugitives ordered deported by federal immigration judges," ICE officials said in a news advisory issued on Monday.

In the recent past, ICE officials have insisted their focus in the roundups is centered on high-level offenders with felonies in their criminal records — a claim disputed by immigrant advocates locally, who point to individuals being readied for deportation who are merely in this country to provide for their families.

In their latest statement, ICE officials seem to acknowledge that hardened felons — "criminal aliens," to borrow from their nomenclature — haven't been their sole focus of late: "Targeted enforcement operations are an integral part of ERO’s civil immigration enforcement strategy and serve to enhance the daily work conducted by ICE deportation officers to arrest criminal aliens and other individuals who are in violation of our nation’s immigration laws," officials said.

That acknowledgement notwithstanding, ICE officials provided a timeline of past enforcement actions to buttress their point the uptick in their local activity is part of their routine enforcement. They ticked off recent enforcement action nationwide by National Fugitive Enforcement Operations beginning with the most recent occurring this month:

• February 2017 – Fugitive enforcement operations began Monday, Feb. 6 in the Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, New York and San Antonio areas of responsibility, which resulted in more than 680 arrests of convicted criminal aliens and other immigration enforcement priorities.
• March 2015 – National Cross Check operation that resulted in 2,059 arrests nationwide.
• August 2013 – National fugitive enforcement operation resulting in 1,660 arrests including 1,517 convicted criminals.
• April 2012 – National Cross Check operation that resulted in more than 3,100 arrests.
• September 2011 – National Cross Check operation resulting in the arrest of more than 2,900 convicted criminal aliens.
• June 2011 – National Cross Check operation that resulted in more than 2,400 arrests across all 50 states.

To further expand their rebuttal to claims of unprecedented crackdowns occuring at the behest of the Trump administration, they also listed efforts by the Local Fugitive Enforcement Operations unit, explaining that each of ERO’s 24 field offices also conducts local fugitive enforcement operations annually. Among the cited examples of ERO initiatives:

• January 2017 – Fugitive enforcement operation in Milwaukee resulting in the arrest of 16 convicted criminal aliens.
• December 2016 – Two-state fugitive enforcement operation in Michigan and Ohio resulting in 74 arrests.
• July 2016 – Los Angeles-area enforcement operation resulting in over 100 criminal arrests.
• October 2015 – Fugitive enforcement operation in Central Pennsylvania area resulting in the arrest of 12 criminal aliens.
• June 2014 – Month-long fugitive enforcement operation in the Chicago area of responsibility, which covers six mid-western states, resulted in 297 arrests.
• February 2012 – Fugitive enforcement action spanning two days in the Milwaukee area resulting in 20 convicted criminal alien arrests.
• May 2012 – Three-day fugitive enforcement operation in Georgia and the Carolinas that resulted in the arrest of 80 criminal aliens.

Expanding on their protocol, ICE offered a number of "key facts" as well:

• "In national operations, the National Fugitive Operations Program and ERO’s National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center work closely with the field to develop and vet lists of potential targets and closely monitor progress through statistical reporting. During local fugitive operations, individual field offices generate their own target lists and manage reporting requirements."
• "Some of the individuals arrested during enforcement operations may face criminal prosecution by U.S. Attorney Offices for illegal entry or illegal re-entry after deportation."
• "Those not being criminally prosecuted will be processed for removal from the United States. Those who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the United States illegally after being deported, are subject to removal from the country."
• "During targeted enforcement operations ICE officers frequently encounter additional suspects who may be in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws. Those persons will be evaluated on a case by case basis and, when appropriate, arrested by ICE."

In a separate news release, ICE officials described their recent enforcement action in neighboring San Antonio, noting that 28 people were arrested there. The focus of that sweep was "...targeting criminal aliens, illegal re-entrants, and immigration fugitives," according to ICE officials.

"A total of 28 foreign nationals were arrested this week in San Antonio and the surrounding areas during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens," ICE officials claimed, listing 16 of those detained as having past criminal convictions.

ICE officials claimed that among those ensnared in the San Antonio area in their recent enforcement action there included a citizen of Mexico previously removed from the United States, who was convicted of aggravated assault; a citizen of El Salvador who pled guilty to the sexual assault of a child; and a citizen of Mexico convicted of domestic violence charges as a repeat offender.

But, again, they eschewed the term "sweep" to describe the action there as well: "These are existing, established fugitive operations teams," officials said. "This operation targeted public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, and individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws, including thosewho re-entered the country after being deported and immigration fugitives ordered deported by federal immigration judges."

>>> Image above from a recent vigil at the steps of the Texas Capitol by members of the Workers Defense Project, one of several pro-immigrant organizations decrying recent ICE action