Federal immigration agents have started rounding up illegal immigrants in the Denver area, following through on a campaign promise by the Trump Administration to deport migrants who have broken the law, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Arrests began on Monday, when President Donald Trump took the oath of office, and have spread throughout the state.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in the Rocky Mountain state has been detaining migrants with pending criminals cases, police sources confirmed.
‘ICE agents are doing their job– the job they should have been doing for the last four years,’ former Colorado Immigration Enforcement director John Fabbricatore told 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 January 20, sources tell Daily Mail (file photo)
‘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.’
Pictured above: The ICE detention center 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
Members of the ruthless Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua have taken over buildings in Aurora, Colorado
President Trump traveled to Aurora, a suburb of Denver, in October to launch ‘Operation Aurora’— what he billed as the largest deportation plan in the nation’s history meant to eject millions of migrants from the US.
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 even children.
Other migrants who lived in those properties were forced to pay the gangsters ‘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.
TdA has also been linked to many high-profile crimes across the country, including murders, rapes, police beatings and extortions.
