The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office is stepping up its efforts to curb illegal immigration across the country.
According to recent internal ICE communications, the Dallas office is among several told to target 75 arrests per day.
The directive follows a weekend surge in arrests across the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where nearly 90 people were arrested.
On Wednesday, Michael T. Igo, the Interim Chief of the Dallas Police Department, posted a video to social media seemingly aimed at reassuring those without documented citizenship that they can feel safe in Dallas. In the video, Igo assured the public that the department would continue to serve all in the city “without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or other protected categories.”
He added that the federal government is primarily responsible for enforcing immigration laws, while the City of Dallas and its Police Department are responsive to the community’s needs and promote the safety of its residents. Igo said that anyone who is a victim of a crime, regardless of their immigration status, has the right to report it.
The ramped-up arrests in the metroplex are part of a larger national initiative aimed at increasing ICE’s daily arrests of unlawful immigrants nationwide. The department’s goal is to arrest between 1,200 and 1,500 people per day across the country, far more than the Biden administration’s daily average of 311 arrests, reported Fox News.
The recent surge of arrests has placed ICE on track to surpass its highest recorded number of daily arrests from the Obama era, which averaged 636 arrests per day in 2013.
ICE agents in Dallas arrested 84 people on Sunday alone, with raids spanning several cities, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, Garland, and Collin County. As of Wednesday, ICE reported 1,016 arrests across the country. The plan of targeting an average of 75 arrests per day in each of the 25 field offices across the country is now in full force, including the Dallas office, according to Fox 4 KDFW.
The White House has rejected claims that these are “quotas,” but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson clarified that these are “goals” rather than mandatory minimums.
The increase in ICE arrests this week follows the influx of record-breaking unlawful immigration numbers in 2024, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
According to the Pew Research Center, America recorded a historic 47.3 million foreign-born residents within its population in 2023, representing 14.3% of the total population. As of 2022, 77% of foreign-born residents were in the U.S. legally, with 49% having become naturalized citizens. However, 23% were unlawful immigrants.