On Tuesday, Thomas Homan, the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that he would send a flood of immigration agents to arrest undocumented criminal immigrants living in sanctuary cities. Interior operations in the US are now more of a focus as illegal southern border crossings continue to decline.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Homan said that the Trump administration has empowered law enforcement to enforce immigration laws more strictly. He called it a welcome change from the policies he has seen pursued by other administrations in his 30-year career. Homan says ICE and Border Patrol agents now have meaning to their jobs since the Presidents removed the handcuffs preventing them from enforcing the law properly.
Homan said illegal southern border crossings have declined to their lowest in ten years since Donald Trump became President. The number of border crossings between the US and Mexico in June was as much as 53 percent fewer than in the corresponding period in 2016. Homan attributes the figures to the orders on immigration enforcement, given by the President.
With fewer undocumented immigrants now trying to cross the border, ICE has turned its attention to those already in the US, including those who are illegally employed or in jail. According to an ICE official, while no specific operations have been conceived for sanctuary cities, greater power will now be devoted to situations where criminal immigrants are not turned over to immigration agents by the local jurisdiction.