Federal immigration officers have launched a major enforcement operation in New York City, starting in Queens on Monday before expanding to other parts of the metro area on Tuesday.
The move follows weeks of warnings from White House border czar Tom Homan, who had signaled for more than a month that additional immigration enforcement resources were headed to New York. Last week, Homan tied the timing to an alleged attack on a federal building, though he noted the operation had already been in the works before that incident occurred.
“There’s just another example of someone attacking ICE because of the constant mis-messaging and vilification of the men and women of ICE,” Homan told reporters.
According to a report, the operation is being carried out by federal officers already assigned to the New York field office, with no agents brought in from other locations so far. The enforcement effort is focused on illegal immigrants and other noncitizens who were released back into their communities after local jails and prisons refused to honor ICE detainers.
Sources also told NewsNation that the operation is expected to produce collateral arrests, meaning officers could detain individuals who were not originally targeted, even with New York’s Protect Our Courts Act limiting civil immigration arrests near state courthouses.
Homan has consistently maintained that anyone in the country illegally remains subject to enforcement regardless of whether they are a primary target of a given operation.
The operation also comes after New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation at the end of May restricting cooperation between state and local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities inside local jails. Homan publicly criticized that move, and a spokesperson for the governor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. New York City Hall also did not respond.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson declined to confirm the operation had begun, citing operational security concerns, but offered this statement: “ICE agents uphold our nation’s immigration laws in all 50 states, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”