In the Denver area, federal immigration agents have initiated the process of detaining illegal immigrants, fulfilling a promise made during the Trump Administration to deport migrants who have violated the law, as uncovered exclusively by DailyMail.com.
Arrests began on Monday, when President Donald Trump took the oath of office, and have spread throughout the state.
Sources from law enforcement have confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Colorado is taking into custody migrants who have criminal cases pending against them.
‘ICE agents are carrying out their duties – duties that should have been enforced over the past four years,’ stated John Fabbricatore, former director of Immigration Enforcement in Colorado, in an interview with DailyMail.com.
‘This is an all-hands-on-deck situation where they are using all the agents they have at their disposal.’
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan confirmed Tuesday afternoon that deportations are happening but didn’t give any details about where they were happening.
‘These cases were already in the hopper. They’ve done the surveillance on them, they have good case notes, and they’re just hitting those cases that they were not allowed to hit prior,’ the former ICE director added.
Fabbricatore explained the Biden Administration had handcuffed agents from making arrests like this.
ICE agents started making arrests in Colorado on Jan. 20
‘There were these priorities that were put out that limited you, like you couldn’t go after DUIs. You couldn’t go after a basic drug possession. The Biden Administration made these priorities that kept you from going after criminals,’ he shared.
Non-criminal migrants who have a final order from a judge to leave the country are also being picked up, although at least 85% of those being sought have criminal records.
‘Potentially, that person may not be a criminal but they still have gone through the immigration process, seen an immigration judge and refused to leave,’ Fabbricatore stated.
Law enforcement cautioned that these are not raids, meaning they aren’t fishing for any person who might be in the US illegally.
Instead, they’re calling this ‘targeted enforcement’ meaning agents have already done homework on who these people are and why they are being detained.
They also explained similar arrests are happening across the country, but they don’t look like the raids everyone expected.
Even though ICE is only going after people who have pending cases at this time., it’s possible other migrants may be caught up in the dragnet.
‘Any collaterals that they come across while targeting a criminal alien is on the table right now,’ Fabbricatore admitted.
‘If they go into an apartment looking for a gang member who’s wanted, and he’s got two buddies in there and they’re both illegal, they may pick them up as well.’
ICE is going after criminal migrants and those who skipped out on deportation order by a judge, law enforcement sources tell DailyMail.com
Pictured above: The ICE office in Aurora, Colorado
Former ICE Field Office Director John Fabbricatore, testifies before a House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement hearing on restoring immigration enforcement in America, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday
President Trump traveled to Aurora, a suburb for Denver, in October to launch ‘Operation Aurora’– what he billed as the largest deportation plan in the nation’s history.
Then-presidential candidate Trump picked Aurora because it has become a stronghold for Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, known as TdA to police.
After slipping across the southern border posing as asylum-seekers, gang members infiltrated at least three apartment complexes in the area.
TdA thugs took over vacant apartment units to use a drug and prostitution dens– pimping out migrant women and children.
Other migrants who lived in those properties were forced to pay the gangster ‘rent’ or face violence.
In August, a video of armed gang members storming a unit at the Edge of Lowry surfaced and made national headlines.
