The first immigration raids under President Donald Trump’s administration show a change in the deportation strategy of the federal government, with fewer criminal immigrants targeted than was the case under President Barack Obama. 74 percent of the 678 apprehended in 12 states had criminal convictions, in last week’s raids. An analysis by USA Today claims this is a fall of 16 percent from the 90 percent with criminal records detained under Obama last year.
85 percent of the 324 immigrants apprehended in six Midwest states in a June raid last year had criminal convictions. This compares to 69 percent in raids in the same states last week. The increase in apprehensions of undocumented immigrants without criminal records seems to contradict Trump’s election promise to have agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) target rapists, murderers, and serious threats to public safety.
President Obama took a similar stance on making serious offenders the focus of Immigration agents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement noted that the 18 raids carried out last year saw targeting of undocumented immigrants who were threats to national security, were gang members, or recent border crossers, as well as those with serious criminal convictions and standing deportation orders.
A new course of action is now being taken with such raids, according to ICE. They claim that officers often encounter other suspects who are undocumented immigrants during the operations, who need to be evaluated on an individual basis. This differs from the Obama approach, which gradually limited the kind of immigrants agents could apprehend.