ICE arrests 2,000 immigrants in largest sweep of the pandemic

September 3, 2020

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced yesterday the results of recent enforcement actions targeting removable aliens who have been arrested for, or have pending charges or convictions, for crimes involving victims.

“The aliens targeted during this operation preyed on men, women and children in our communities, committing serious crimes and, at times, repeatedly hurting their victims,” said Senior Official Performing the Duties of the ICE Director Tony H. Pham. “By focusing our efforts on perpetrators of crimes against people, we’re able to remove these threats from our communities and prevent future victimization from occurring. Through our targeted enforcement efforts, we are eliminating the threat posed by these criminals, many of whom are repeat offenders.”

Data captured from July 13 to Aug. 20 shows that ICE officers arrested more than 2,000 at-large individuals living illegally in the U.S., or who are removable from the U.S. due to their criminal histories. About 85 percent of those arrested by ICE on immigration charges also had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

For CBS News analysis of the sweep, click here. An ICE official told CBS News the following: “We know a lot more people are spending time at home to mitigate the spread of COVID-19,” he added. “We wanted to do everything we could to prevent people from getting hurt, especially in their own homes.”

Immigrant rights advocates have also criticized ICE’s response to the spread of the coronavirus inside its sprawling immigration detention system.

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