Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem joined Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the wee hours of Tuesday morning as they conducted the first deportation operation in New York City.
Noem said ICE agents nabbed an illegal immigrant “with kidnapping, assault & burglary charges,” and promised more criminal aliens would be removed from the streets of NYC.
“We are doing this right – doing exactly what President @realDonaldTrump promised the American people – making our streets safe,” Noem said on X.
“Live this AM from NYC. I’m on it.”
Noem also shared a video of a person being removed in handcuffs from a building and posted pictures of herself with federal agents and local law enforcement. Heavily armed agents from DHS, ICE, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals, and NYPD special operations officers were involved in the raid.
A former GOP governor of South Dakota, the GOP-controlled Senate confirmed Noem this past weekend with support from a handful of Democrats. As Homeland Security secretary, Noem will be tasked with handling President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans alongside border czar Tom Homan.
New York City’s sanctuary city policy appeared not to get in the way of the deportation raids as the Trump administration conducts daily operations in deep-blue cities where illegal immigrants are most heavily concentrated. T
New York City mayor Eric Adams (D) has said local officials would coordinate the raids with ICE but did not elaborate on how he would respond to Trump’s policy enabling agents to carry out raids in churches and schools. Adams has met with Trump and attended Trump’s inauguration as he angles for a pardon from federal corruption charges related to alleged dealings with the Turkish government.
Federal agents are deporting and detaining hundreds of illegal immigrants on a daily basis, with an initial emphasis on violent criminals. On Monday night, ICE announced it made nearly 1,200 arrests and lodged 879 detainers that day, a slight increase from the day before.
President Trump declared illegal immigration a national emergency on the first day of his administration and authorized mass deportation to begin. Trump also designated drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations and reinstated his “remain in Mexico” policy requiring asylum seekers to wait south of the border while their cases are pending.
Deporting millions of illegal aliens was one of Trump’s main campaign promises and has support from the majority of the American people. Overwhelmingly, Americans favor deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records and those who entered the U.S. under former president Joe Biden.