President Trump’s shock and awe strategy has fueled a surge in immigration arrests in the interior of the country, as the government’s deportation force said it started a crackdown in Chicago on Sunday, on top of more than 1,400 nationwide arrests from Thursday to Saturday.
Among the arrests were dozens of gang members, including migrants tied to Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang that has infiltrated the U.S. over the last three years and which Mr. Trump has designated as an enemy militia.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said other targets arrested late last week included a convicted murderer, habitual drunk drivers, drug dealers and migrants charged with sex crimes.
ICE also announced Sunday that it had begun what it called “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago.
Meanwhile, the Army’s 101st Airborne Division announced it was mobilizing troops from a military police battalion to help with what Mr. Trump has declared an “invasion” of illegal immigrants.
Pentagon officials have said the additional military personnel will assist the Border Patrol in spotting illegal border crossers.
Military planes are also now being used to make deportation flights, delivering migrants from the border directly to their home countries.
The all-hands effort is paying off.
The first three days of the Trump administration saw a 35% drop in illegal border crossings compared to the last three days of President Biden’s tenure, according to figures shared during debate in the Senate last week over confirming Kristi Noem as the new Homeland Security secretary.
Things have calmed so much that officials in Pima County, Arizona, announced Thursday they were shutting down two migrant shelters. They said no new illegal immigrants had been caught and released into their community since Mr. Trump took office, and it was too expensive to keep the shelters open as a contingency.
Homeland Security celebrated the early wins.
“Promises made, promises kept,” the department said in an email to reporters. “President Trump is already securing our border and deporting criminal aliens.”
Tom Homan, Mr. Trump’s border czar, told ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday that the moves are designed to send a message that the Biden days of leniency for illegal border crossers are over.
“If we don’t show there’s consequences, you’re never going to fix the border problem,” he said.
Part of the message-sending is a much more aggressive approach to touting arrests.
ICE’s account on social media platform X has begun posting a daily tally of activity.
It said agents and officers made 538 arrests on Thursday, 593 on Friday and 286 on Saturday.
ICE officers also lodged 1,243 deportation “detainer” requests with other law enforcement agencies. Detainers are requests that those other agencies notify ICE when a target is being released from custody so deportation officers can be on hand to pick them up.
Sanctuary cities often refuse those requests.
The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, which is a sanctuary city, gained national headlines late last week when he complained that ICE “terrorized” his residents when officers arrested three illegal immigrants at a business on Thursday.
Mayor Ras Baraka said officers didn’t have a warrant when they went into the back of the business, and he said they detained and questioned a U.S. military veteran as they were seeking targets for their arrests.
“The problem with this is that none of these people were rapists or murderers or criminals,” the mayor said. “The problem with it is that ICE went in there without a warrant.”
ICE didn’t address the warrant claims but did defend the way its officers handled the encounters at the business, saying they “may request identification to establish an individual’s identity.”
ICE averaged more than 470 arrests a day over the three-day period.
That’s a 50% increase over the pace set by the Biden administration in fiscal year 2024.
Among the new arrests ICE highlighted were Julio Cesar Diaz Martinez, nabbed in Buffalo, whose crimes included sex trafficking, and Pablo Beningo Calva-Deamonte, arrested in Denver, who had thee DUIs on his record.
ICE has also arrested Cesar Augusto Polanco, 59, a Dominican Republic citizen and convicted murderer, and Jose Tito Reyes, 54, a Salvadoran with a sex crimes record, according to data from an administration official.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.