‘He has no criminal records': ICE expands enforcement, leaving immigrant families shaken.

Boston Globe

24-03-2025

President Trump has vowed to deport millions of people who entered the country illegally but experts said it's too soon to know whether those deportations will materialize. The Department of Homeland Security said in a March 13
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In February, the Trump administration carried out about 18,000 deportations,
including that of
The agency has not released local
arrest numbers. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a professor and associate director of the Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Clinic at Boston University School of Law, said the arrests in recent days signal a shift away from enforcement actions largely targeting immigrants with a criminal record.
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'That feels like we have entered some new territory here in terms of the intensity and frequency,' Sherman-Stokes said.
The Trump administration has instructed ICE officials to carry out at least 1,200 to 1,500 arrests per day, with 75 arrests each day per field office,
John Sandweg, a former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Obama administration, said he had been expecting this kind of 'tactical shift' from the Trump administration to meet arrest quotas.
To increase their numbers, officials can collaborate with other agencies to 'sweep' an area that may have a high immigrant population, making traffic stops and using other tactics to broaden their pool of arrests, Sandweg said.
'It's probably one of the highest-yield operations,' Sandweg said. 'This kind of operation is zero targeting ... and often times you're going to get people who are, frankly, taking their kids to school, or going to work.'
ICE field office directors and top officials in the agency are under 'tremendous pressure' to drive up arrest numbers — and so the tactic becomes 'arrest everything that moves,' Sandweg said.
White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to the Globe that the Trump administration is 'committed to delivering on President Trump's mandate to mass deport criminal illegal migrants, enforce our immigration laws, and secure our borders.'
Federal agents from multiple departments were involved in last week's effort to apprehend immigrants in Massachusetts; including from two arms of ICE — Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations — the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the US Marshals Service.
The Trump administration has celebrated its enforcement operations.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio retweeted a video Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele posted on March 16 of more than 200 Venezuelans, accused of belonging to the transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua, who were deported to a mega prison in El Salvador. Many families of the deported men have said their loved ones are not gang members.
Inmates allegedly linked to criminal organizations are lined up by guards in their cells at CECOT on March 16, in Tecoluca, El Salvador.
Handout/Salvadoran Government via Getty Images
Trump's 'border czar' Tom Homan
'That garbage is over with,' Homan said. 'It's not OK to cross the border illegally.'
At some local detention facilities, there has been a modest increase in the number of ICE detainees held there. At the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, the number of ICE detainees has increased about 30 percent
At one point in February, the Strafford County House of Corrections in New Hampshire
In Massachusetts, some families who thought they would be safe from the Trump administration's enforcement actions are reeling.
Elmer, a 30-year-old father of two from El Salvador, was headed to work last Tuesday in Chelsea when federal agents surrounded the van he was in, according to accounts from his family and employer. After asking for the license of Jose Orellana, a US citizen who was driving the van and runs the business, agents turned to the other workers and demanded their documents. Elmer's family requested that just his first name be used, for fear of retaliation.
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Family members said Elmer has a valid work permit, which he gave to officials. He was nevertheless
detained, along with two other workers, and is being held in ICE custody at the Plymouth detention center.
At La Colaborativa, Derick Morales, 23, a US citizen, described how his brother, Elmer, was taken away in handcuffs in an ICE arrest.
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
'I was in so much shock,' said his brother, Derick Morales.
Morales, who lives with Elmer, said his brother had recently renewed his work permit.
'He has no criminal records, he had a valid document with him,' Morales, 23, said.
Similar actions have been reported in multiple immigrant-heavy communities in recent days. In East Boston last Wednesday, federal agents stopped a car and broke through its glass window, forcefully dragging a young man out and detaining him. In New Bedford,
Adrián Ventura, president of the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, which supports the local immigrant community, said the arrests were 'leaving people really traumatized.'
'At first, we thought they [authorities] were just taking people with criminal records,' Ventura said in Spanish. 'Now, they have a massive reach.'
Elmer, who was arrested on his way to work in Chelsea, and his family, crossed the border without authorization into Texas in 2019, where they turned themselves over to immigration authorities, and requested asylum, his wife, Carolina, said in an interview. They have an immigration court date next year. In the meantime, she and her husband had been granted work permits. Elmer had been painting homes across New England for years. Carolina works at a daycare.
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They have two children: a 6-year-old son, Jayden, who is in kindergarten, and a 5-year-old daughter, Araceli, a US citizen. Carolina requested the Globe use her middle name for fear that she, too, would be detained.
Carolina said the family was trying to follow all the rules of the asylum process — they had spent thousands on an immigration lawyer, showed up to every court date, had their work permits in order, and continued to pay taxes.
For days after the arrest, Carolina, 32, and her young children were too afraid to leave the house. Her son Jayden missed school for a few days, and has refused to eat.
The children loved when their father would read them stories before bedtime, and spend time drawing alongside them.
'They ask me why their father isn't coming back,' Carolina said. 'That destroys me.'
At La Colaborativa, Gladys Vega, left, consoled Carolina, 32, whose husband, Elmer, was arrested by ICE.
Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff
Samantha J. Gross
of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at