A report from The Daily Wire states that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has now informed its agents to stop holding detention on all illegal aliens unless those immigrants can be clearly identified as being involved in a criminal act. Further, it was also reportedly indicated by the new directives that the practice known as “collateral arrests,” wherein ICE officers detain an undocumented immigrant while in pursuit of another individual they had originally been instructed to arrest, would be discontinued.
This reported switch in policy direction appears to be HIGHLY suspect.
It’s worth noting that there were varying reactions among ICE staff regarding the agency-wide directive; several expressed frustration as well as questioned why the agency felt it necessary to make such a drastic change at this time.
Perhaps the Trump Administration implemented these changes
because the midterm elections are just shy of six weeks away and the Republicans are continuing to hemorrhage Hispanic support?
This appears to be an attempt to score points with Hispanics. And I’ll bet its temporary.
President Trump’s big gains with Latino voters in 2024 are slipping away. He won 48% of them that year, the best showing for a Republican in decades, according to Pew Research Center. Now, Democrats lead among Hispanic likely voters by 35 points, 64% to 29%, in the race for Congress, The New York Times reported.
More than half of Latino adults know someone affected by the crackdown, an AP-NORC poll found. Many had believed deportations would focus on criminals, even though Trump repeatedly insisted ICE would go after EVERYONE who was in the U.S. illegally – or boderline legally. If ICE thought they could easily capture a 68 year-old grandmother who had no criminal record, they would prioritize her.
Only about 30% of detained migrants have had criminal records, El País recently reported.
The announcement comes just a few days after border czar Tom Homan said ICE had no plans to slow down and that agents would continue to be sent to sanctuary cities.
“We’re going to keep pushing. We’re not going to apologize. The media back there, you can hate us all you want. We’re not going anywhere. ICE is going to continue doing their job every day across this country, especially in sanctuary cities where we’ll surge resources and flood the zone.“
“We’re going to enforce a law without apology. You got my word on that.”
So much for that, huh.
Prediction / Warning: Look for the Trump administration to slowly ramp things up after the midterms and gradually go back to deporting as many non-citizens as possible, regardless of their criminal status. They’ve made too many promises and there’s simply too much on the line for them not to.
