As Trump ramps up immigration raids, some migrants go underground

More than 3,500 undocumented migrants have been arrested since Trump returned to the White House, including just over 1,000 on Tuesday, 969 on Monday and 1,179 on Sunday, according to daily statistics published by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

By comparison, an average of 310 were made during the 2024 fiscal year, when Joe Biden was in office, according to the agency.

Immigration officials have described these raids as “targeted enforcement operations” that have resulted in the arrest of violent gang members and dangerous suspects, and have deputised agents from other federal law enforcement agencies to help step up arrests.

“I haven’t seen anything remotely like this, and it’s just the first few days of the presidency,” said Gina Amato Lough, the California-based director attorney for the Immigrants Right Project, an immigration advocacy group. “Nothing of this magnitude.”

Ms Lough added that the “stated intention is to create shock and awe”.

“It’s working,” she said. “It’s also creating terror in the community.”

The White House and ICE have publicised some of these arrests, showing pictures of the suspects and providing details of their countries of origin and crimes, which have included sex crimes, assaults and drug-trafficking offences.

But the White House has made it clear that any undocumented migrant caught up in these raids – whether criminals or not – are subject to arrest and deportation, even though simply being in the US illegally is a civil matter.

Earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that “all of them” are criminals.

“They illegally broke our nation’s laws, and, therefore, are criminals are far as this administration goes,” she told reporters on Tuesday.