During the electoral campaign, Donald Trump was very clear: “I will launch the largest criminal deportation program in the history of the US.”
That promise, according to opinion polls, was very popular among the American population, including many legal immigrants who felt that too many people were entering the country through the “wrong path.”
Since the president assumed the position, he has expanded the scope of his mission, noting not only to the criminals, but also to migrant workers, certain student activists and even tourists with visa problems.
For almost five months, arrests and deportations found little resistance. But now, in some parts of Los Angeles they have exploded protests after immigration officials intensified their raids in workplaces.
But who are immigrants detained by the Customs Immigration and Control Service (ICE)? And who else have in the spotlight?
“Collateral” criminals and arrests
Since he assumed the position, President Trump has highlighted the dive of border crossings and record arrests that have been registered under his administration.
Approximately 51,000 undocumented immigrants remained detained by ICE in early June, the highest figure registered since September 2019.
Although there are no precise and updated figures that are publicly available on the total number of arrests carried out by immigration services since January 20, some White House officials have said that they hope ICE can increase the number of arrests per day of the approximate 660 that were recorded during the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency to 3,000 arrests daily.
Initially, US officials insisted that operations were “addressed” to criminals and potential threats to public security.
But a significant number of undocumented immigrants detained by the Trump administration have no background, according to a data tracker.
The transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a project from the University of Syracuse that compiles immigration figures, estimates that of the 51,302 people who were in ICE detention centers for June 1, approximately 44% had no criminal record, beyond having entered the US without permission.
The riots in Los Angeles were caused by a series of immigrants arrests left by a total of 118 people detained, among which, according to the National Security Department, there were five gang members.
ICE says that those arrested in Los Angeles are “the worst of the worst.” The agency identified a handful of people with a criminal record, including drug trafficking, aggression, child cruelty, domestic violence, theft and immigrant traffic.
However, it is not clear how many of the total arrests have a criminal record.
The parents of an undocumented immigrant, 23, a member of the Zapoteca indigenous community of Mexico, told the newspaper The Washington Post That his son, who according to them had no criminal record, was arrested outside a clothing store.
BBC cannot independently confirm the details of this case.
Tom Homan border tsar said that these arrests were a “collateral damage”, arguing that agents cannot legally justify the encounter with undocumented immigrants and not stop them.
Visitors and residents
There have been several cases of tourists arrested and retained in detention centers.
In April, for example, a 28 -year -old Welsh tourist was held for 19 days in an ICE processing center in the Washington state after the entrance to Canada was denied, so it later turned out to be a “visa confusion”.
In another more recent incident in June, Khaby Lame, 25 -year -old Italian citizen (the world’s most popular Tiktok star with 162 million followers), was arrested at Las Vegas airport for “migratory rapes.”
ICE claimed that Lame exceeded the term of his visa after having entered the country on April 30. The authorities said later that the “voluntary exit” was granted and left the country.
In addition, in March, Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney was arrested for two weeks after being arrested at the San Ysidro border crossing, from where she tried to enter the United States.
He later described the conditions of his detention as “inhuman” and said they kept it in a cement cell without blankets and with limited bathrooms. He was subsequently released without being accused of any crime.
His case caught the attention of the British Columbia Prime Minister David Eby, who said that the incident further increased the Canadian anxiety about traveling to the US.
“Our relationship is so tense at the moment that this case makes us ask ourselves: what about our relatives who work in the United States?” He said in a statement to the CBC chain.
Others, such as Fabian Schmidt, a 34 -year -old German citizen, were arrested at airports.
Schmidt, who lives in the United States since 2007, was arrested when he was heading to that country from Luxembourg.
In an interview with WGBH, a New Hampshire news media, Schmidt said he was questioned about a smaller drug charge that was later dismissed and a subsequent position that is imposed on people who lead under the influence of alcohol or psychoactive substances and that resulted in a fine.
The National Security Department (DHS) has greatly avoided commenting on specific cases, but has repeatedly insisted that it is legally operating.
‘Foreign enemies’
Some of the most shocking images of the Trump administration’s immigration policy come from El Salvador.
More than 250 people to whom the US government accuses of being members of the band of Aragua were transferred to a Salvadoran Megacárcel, the CECOT.
However, relatives of some of these men have questioned any link with gangs and some argue that they were arrested as a result of innocent tattoos.
“It’s really discouraging,” Adelys Ferro, executive director of Venezuelan-American Caucus told BBC. “All these decisions are inhuman, cruel and also illegal.”
The most prominent case is Kilmar Abrego García, a 29 -year -old Salvadoran resident in Maryland who was deported to El Salvado in March.
Several judges, including those of the Supreme Court, have ruled that Ábrego García was deported by mistake and that the government must “facilitate” their return to the country and his family.
On June 6, he was returned to the United States to face federal criminal charges after being formally accused of illegally transporting undocumented immigrants while they were still in the US.
Students
Foreigners who participate in political protests are also in the spotlight of the Trump administration, although some have permanent residence or valid student visas.
Anthony Enriquez, a lawyer in the organization Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, told the BBC that there were more and more foreigners with permanent residence permits that have been arrested since Trump returned to the presidency.
“Immigration authorities are empowered to carry out arrests that are not legally allowed,” he said.
More than 1,600 international students have revoked visas for different reasons, according to Nafsa, an organization that focuses on international education.
Many of the arrests occur within the framework of the White House offensive against what he perceives as “anti -Semitism” on American campuses, including the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure during the protests against Gaza’s War at Columbia University last year.
Khalil, 30, has a residence permit and has been fighting to stop his deportation in court.
Rumeysa Ozturb, a student at Tufts University, also spent six weeks in custody before being released.
The university later said that they had been told that Ozturk, who had participated in proper protests, had revoked the student visa. She continues to fight her deportation in court.
Although these cases have been subject to strong criticism, ICE has justified some of the arrests saying that students participated in “aligned” activities with the Palestinian group Hamás.
“A visa is a privilege, not a right,” said US national security spokesman Tricia McLaughlin, in an X post.
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