Immigration security

Immigration enforcement under Trump: Fewer people caught at border, more arrested in U.S. interior

After 10 months of ramped-up immigration enforcement under President Trump and a sharp surge of arrests across the country, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement promised Tuesday that the agency will become even more aggressive next year.

Thomas Homan, acting director of ICE, said he wants to dramatically increase targeting of companies that hire immigrants who entered the country illegally, as well as launch community raids that snare such people in so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with his agency.

Homan dismissed complaints from immigration advocates about the rollback of Obamaadministration policies that had led to a sharp drop in arrests inside the country. Immigrants who received final deportation orders can expect to become targets, he said, even if they’ve lived in the United States for years or have children who are U.S. citizens.

“Those days are over,” Homan told reporters about the administration’s enforcement record. “We’re going to execute those final [deportation] orders, because if we don’t, there’s no integrity in the system.”