ICE Is Not Giving Details on Arrests Under New Customs Order

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Executive Associate Director (EAD) of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Thomas D. Homan, left, and Acting Chief of the Border Patrol at Customs and Border Protection Ronald Vitiello
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The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that last week’s immigration arrests were a “a broader effort that can be aimed at anyone with a criminal record or is suspected at criminal activity.”

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she spoke with ICE acting director Thomas Homan Tuesday after the agency canceled a meeting that was planned with several members of the caucus. ICE told Grisham, D-N.M., it wanted to open the meeting to others and allow it to be bipartisan. Grisham said she persisted for details on who was arrested by ICE fugitive operations teams that conducted sweeps last week in several cities around the country.

“He confirmed … that unlike other actions in the past that this is a broader effort that can be aimed at anyone that has a criminal record or is suspected of criminal activity, which meets the language of course of broader discretion to Homeland Security and I’m very concerned about that because that’s a shift,” Grisham said. ICE had insisted it was carrying out immigration operations as it had always done. NBC News reached out to ICE Tuesday for comment on its guidelines and the arrests, but did not get a response.

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