Federal agents ordered to arrest and deport every immigrant in the U.S. illegally are pausing enforcement actions targeting the agricultural industry, hotels and restaurants after appeals from the industries.
Since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, more than 236,000 immigrants have been arrested nationwide and over 207,000 deported as of Friday, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has repeatedly asked ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations for the number of arrests of alleged illegal immigrants in Hawaii so far this year and for each of the previous five years.
ICE officials have refused to make the data public or provide an explanation for withholding the information.
Homeland Security Investigations Honolulu has said that more than 100 people have been arrested for alleged violations of immigration law in Hawaii so far this year. Information on exactly how many over 100, where they were arrested and for what reason has not been made public.
The mass deportations have spurred protests across the country, prompting Trump to send the National Guard and Marines into Southern California. The troop movement was met with a lawsuit from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
On Thursday, Trump took to his Truth Social media account to note that changes were coming to his administration’s mass deportations.
“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” wrote Trump, who brands hotels with his name. “This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”
Trump posted that he campaigned on and received a “historic mandate” for the “largest Mass Deportation Program in American History.”
“Anyone who assaults or attacks an ICE or Border Agent will do hard time in jail. Those who are here illegally should either self deport using the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) Home App or, ICE will find you and remove you. Saving America is not negotiable!,” wrote Trump.
The New York Times reported that guidance stopping targeted enforcement operations was sent on Thursday in an email by a senior ICE official, Tatum King, to regional leaders of Homeland Security Investigations.
“We will follow the President’s direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets,” read a statement to the Star-Advertiser from Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin.
In the current fiscal year, 561 immigration arrests by Dec. 31 have occurred in ICE’s San Francisco Area of Responsibility, which includes the state of Hawaii. Statistics for Hawaii were not immediately available Wednesday.
Of those arrested during that time, 517 were removed from the country.
The U.S. is divided into 25 areas of responsibility policed by immigration enforcement agents.
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations officers enforce “immigration laws within the interior to preserve national security and public safety,” according to DHS. ERO manages all aspects of the immigration enforcement process, including the “identification, arrest, detention and removal of aliens” who are subject to removal or are unlawfully present in the U.S.
The U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Justice are leading the investigations, planning and execution of targeted immigration enforcement actions.
Federal agents use “statutory law enforcement authority” to identify and arrest immigrants who may present “threats to national security or public safety, or who otherwise undermine the integrity of U.S. immigration laws,” according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
ICE most commonly arrests immigration violators with convictions involving DUI, drug possession, assault and criminal (noncivil) traffic offenses such as hit-and-run or leaving the scene of an accident.
Federal agents say they use “targeted, intelligence-driven operations to prioritize its enforcement actions.”
In response to a Thursday request for immigration arrests statistics for Hawaii, ICE officials shared the nationwide numbers since the start of Trump’s second term and a May 14 news release.
The release was sent in response to a NYT story about ICE agents targeting coffee farmers in Kona. The statement noted that the story “falsely painted a narrative that Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeted illegal alien coffee workers in Hawaii.”
“The truth is ICE targeted criminal illegal aliens and conducted unaccompanied minor welfare checks to ensure children are not being abused, trafficked or otherwise exploited,” said McLaughlin on May 14. “Why does the New York Times continue to peddle false sob stories of criminal illegal aliens but ignore their victims? Completely leaving out the facts and rap sheets of criminals arrested shows the New York Times’s complete bias. This story was nothing but an attempt to mislead the public.”
Immigration enforcement has led to some high-profile arrests in Hawaii:
• On June 12, ICE agents arrested a Russian woman at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe. Federal officials say she is in the United States illegally. Anastasiia Vorobeva “entered the United States at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego, Calif., July 18, 2023,” read a caption beneath a post of a picture of Vorobeva posted on ICE’s social media platforms Sunday. She was arrested Thursday, according to the post.
How Vorobeva got on the base, what she was doing there, and what federal law she is accused of violating were not made public by ICE officials.
An online search of the federal court records did not reveal a record of her arrest or court proceedings.
“The information available in the initial post is what we have available. No further information will be forthcoming on this individual,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
• On June 2, an immigrant allegedly living in the country illegally and wanted on a federal arrest warrant refused get out of his car in Kapolei.
ICE agents who boxed him in with a sport utility vehicle broke a window to arrest the man, Ricardo Ramirez Almaguer, who allegedly entered and remained in the United States illegally.
Almaguer was arrested in Waianae on Sept. 19, 2023, and charged with drunk driving, driving without a license, and having an open container of alcohol in his vehicle, according to state court records. Through a Spanish interpreter, he eventually pleaded no contest to the impaired driving charge. The other charges were dismissed with prejudice.
Source: The Garden Island
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