US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly arrested 308 illegal migrants on the first full day of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Among those arrested were individuals charged with crimes such as murd£r and child r@pe, according to Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, who was cited by the New York Post.
Homan noted that immigration officers began arresting illegal migrants who pose threats to “public safety,” adding that there are approximately 700,000 currently in the US.
CNN reported that thousands of additional active-duty US troops are being deployed to the southern border with Mexico after Trump ordered a troop ramp-up as part of his initiative to crack down on illegal immigration.
On inauguration day, Trump directed the military on Monday to increase its presence at the border to combat illegal immigration, including by declaring a national emergency at the southern border.
Homan has said that ICE officers have compiled a “target sheet” of the illegal migrants with criminal records who they’re looking to arrest and deport.
“So, they’re out there right now looking for the most serious public safety threats and throughout the country, we’re putting them back to work,” Homan said of ICE.
In Boston, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported that ICE officers arrested at least 8 migrants including a Haitian gang member with 18 arrests who shouted “f**k Trump, Biden forever!” as he was hauled away.
ICE also nabbed one illegal migrant who wasn’t originally a target, but happened to be with an MS-13 gang member when the feds showed up.
Sex offender Edward Marlon Rauda-Aldnada, 56, of El Salvador, was arrested in Silver Spring, Maryland, just north of Washington, DC.
Jose Barco-Chirino, a Venezuelan national, was taken into custody at Colorado State Prison in Canon City, Colo., where he was serving time after being convicted of attempted murder, extreme indifference and felony menacing with a real or simulated weapon.
He will remain in ICE custody until an immigration judge can rule on deportation proceedings.
In Miami, ICE arrested six illegal aliens from Guatemala who were living in Martin County, Fla., and who had lengthy rap sheets including battery, child abuse, fraud, resisting arrest, DWI, trespassing, and vandalism. They were detained as threats to public safety and for violating the terms of their release.
The arrests are just the start of the mass deportations promised on the campaign trail by President Trump, to be overseen by newly anointed border czar Tom Homan.
This comes after Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to deploy 1,500 additional active-duty troops to the southern border. They will reinforce about 2,200 active-duty troops and thousands of state national guardsmen already there.
“President Trump signed an executive order of 1,500 additional troops to the United States southern border. This comes off of his day one action… to direct the Department of Defense to make homeland security a core mission of the agency,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
“This is something President Trump campaigned on. The American people have been waiting for such a time as this, for our Department of Defense to actually take homeland security seriously. This is a number one priority of the American people and the president has already delivered.”
