Early Tuesday morning, federal agents armed to the teeth descended on New York City for the first deportation raids under President Trump’s hardline stance, arresting dangerous illegal immigrants, including those accused of kidnapping and murder.
Kristi Noem, the new Secretary of Homeland Security, flew to the city to join hundreds of officers from various federal agencies. Dressed in a protective ICE vest, she took part in the extensive operation, which began with early raids in the Bronx.
The initial arrests targeted migrants with warrants for serious crimes such as burglary, assault, kidnapping, extortion, and other violent offenses, according to police sources who spoke with The Post.
The primary goal of the operation, as a DHS spokesperson told Fox News, was to “get the bad guys out of the country,” focusing on “murderers, kidnappers, and individuals charged with assault and burglary.” This included a Dominican national who had an Interpol red notice out for his arrest for a double homicide in the Dominican Republic.
Noem shared video footage of one of the raids, highlighting the arrest of “a criminal alien with kidnapping, assault & burglary charges.”
“Dirtbags like this will continue to be removed from our streets,” Noem wrote in a defiant message. “We are doing this right – doing exactly what President @realDonaldTrump promised the American people – making our streets safe.”
One of the early morning raids startled residents of an apartment building on Ogden Avenue in the Bronx, with neighbors describing a loud noise before a suspect was taken away in handcuffs.
“When they brought him out, he had shackles on his wrists to his feet,” said one woman who lives in the building and preferred to remain anonymous. “His face had a real angry expression. It was strange. I’ve lived here many years and I’ve never seen him come in or out of the building.”
Neighbors said they had noticed a woman and several children living in the apartment that was raided, but the man who was arrested was not one they recognized.
“Everybody in the building is just asking who else are they coming for? How are they picking the people? Is it just people who have been in the system, who have been arrested? A lot of people don’t have their papers here and there is a lot of fear,” one neighbor said. “We need to know how they are picking the people that they are coming and getting.”
Another neighbor called the operation “a big operation” led by Homeland Security officers, describing how the metal door to the apartment was forcibly removed with a crowbar.
“They’re going to get due process. It doesn’t matter if, it doesn’t matter what crimes, there or they’re here illegally, they’re going to get due process so it’s okay. I’m not opposed. Whatever they allegedly did,” the neighbor said, noting the family in the apartment included a man, woman, and children.
Since Trump’s inauguration, federal agents, under the supervision of border czar Tom Homan, have been making daily arrests of criminal migrants in sanctuary cities across the country. These raids have targeted cities such as Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, and New Orleans, all part of the administration’s efforts to deport lawbreakers.
Homan, speaking on ABC News last Sunday, warned that anyone living in the U.S. illegally is “on the table” for deportation.
“You’re going to see the numbers steadily increase, the number of arrests nationwide, as we open up the aperture,” he said. “Right now, it’s concentrating on public safety threats [and] national security threats. That’s a smaller population. So we’re going to do this on a priority [basis], that’s President Trump’s promise. But as that aperture opens, there’ll be more arrests nationwide.”
Trump has rolled back restrictions on how immigration officers can conduct deportation raids, lifting bans on operations in churches, courthouses, and other “sensitive” locations where illegal migrants have often sought refuge to avoid detection.
Ahead of the raids, New York City Mayor Eric Adams stated that the city would “coordinate” with ICE regarding the handling of criminal migrants, though he mentioned that officials were still reviewing Trump’s new rules regarding raids in “sensitive” locations.
To address concerns from immigrant communities in New York City, Adams has attempted to reassure residents that the local police will not participate in federal deportation efforts. The NYPD issued an internal memo, obtained by The NY Post, reminding officers that while they can assist in criminal investigations, they cannot engage in deportation activities, which are classified as civil matters under the city’s sanctuary status.
In the lead-up to Tuesday’s raids in the Big Apple, ICE reported 1,179 arrests and issued 853 detainers on Monday, following 956 arrests and 554 detainers on Sunday.
{Matzav.com}