CRIME/IMMIGRATION/SANCTUARY CITIES: “Federal agents arrested 498 people from 42 countries in a four-day nationwide operation targeting cities that United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement said give sanctuary to undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.
ICE officials said that the sweep, Operation Safe City, which concluded Wednesday [9-27-17], focused on ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ where the agency is denied access to jails to interview suspects and where its requests to take those arrested into custody are not honored.
The operation came amid an escalating conflict between these jurisdictions and the Trump administration, which has faced several legal challenges in its efforts to mandate cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. The arrests this week were a stinging rebuke to sanctuary cities, several of which have passed ordinances or policies preventing full cooperation with ICE…
The most arrests were made in Philadelphia (107) and Los Angeles (101). There were also many arrests in Northern California; Boston; Denver; and Portland, Ore.
Typically, in such sweeps, teams of agents fan out in the early hours of the day to arrest people before they leave for work, after monitoring their movements in advance.”
-Miriam Jordan, “Immigration Agents Arrest Hundreds in Sweep of Sanctuary Cities,” The New York Times online, Sept. 28, 2017