Immigration attorneys say they are getting inundated with phone calls after weekend ICE actions
Attorney Michael Urbina said Monday that federal agents are not just targeting people with criminal records.
For some families, they are so worried that they actually contemplating keeping their kids home from school.
In the meantime, Urbina told Channel 2's Michael Seiden that it's important that people understand their rights.
'We knew something like this would happen,' Urbina said after learning about the target operations.
Multiple federal agencies assisted US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers over the weekend as they made hundreds of arrests across the country, including right here in metro Atlanta.
'It's definitely created a sense of fear and uncertainty,' Urbina said.
While the Trump administration has touted the crackdown as targeting criminals, Urbina said he has heard other stories about authorities arresting people without criminal records.
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'I heard of a lady out in Athens who has been here for over 10 years, has five children here. She just had a removal order from a long time ago, so they targeted her,' Urbina said.
On Sunday, pastor Luis Ortiz told Channel 2 Action News that he was in the middle of giving his sermon at his church in Tucker when ICE knocked on the door and arrested one of his members.
'They don't want to go home because they're scared the officers are outside,' Ortiz said.
Right now, it's unclear how many arrests have been made here in metro Atlanta, but Urbina said it's important that you know your rights, especially if you get a knock on the door from ICE.
'Don't incriminate yourself, stay quiet, maintain proof that they've been here for the last two years, because that's been one of the main focuses. There is a law for expedited removal that if a person hasn't been here for two years,' Urbina said.
Seiden reached out to ICE on Monday hoping to get some local arrest numbers, but so far his calls haven't been returned.
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Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
$50K bonuses, reduced age minimums and Superman: How ICE will fill its ranks
Wartime-like recruitment posters. Sign-on bonuses of up to $50,000. Massive hiring events. Reduced age requirements. Superman. It's all been part of the Trump administration's campaign to attract new applicants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And so far, it's brought in more than 110,000 applications, ICE deputy director Madison Sheahan said in an interview with POLITICO. Thirty percent of applicants are military veterans and roughly 10 percent are coming from other federal law enforcement agencies, Sheahan said. The administration's targeting of law enforcement recruits comes amid fears from Democrats and immigration advocates that the Trump administration is going to rely on unqualified recruits to quickly fill the 10,000 new ICE agent jobs they got out of the GOP's megabill. 'This is the first time ICE has ever had a major plus up. So the beauty of that is that we can learn from the best practices of other agencies,' Sheahan said. 'That huge presence that we're seeing from former military and former federal law enforcement — those are people that have been vetted their entire career and have done great work for this country their entire career. And so having them a part of our ranks is really going to be helpful when it comes to a lot of the criticism that we're getting right now.' The speed at which the agency executes the plus up — from 20,000 to 30,000 agents — is a delicate balance. Moving too quickly could amplify concerns that the agency didn't thoroughly vet and train new agents at a time when ICE faces mounting scrutiny. But moving too slowly could delay the agency's efforts to meet the White House's goal of 3,000 daily arrests and 1 million annual deportations. 'We have an opportunity to do this throughout the president's entire term, and we'll continue to do that until our ranks are filled,' Sheahan said. 'Obviously, the pressure is on nationwide for us to serve the American people, and so we want to make sure we deliver for them.' ICE's human resources department is sorting through the 110,000 applications, which include candidates interested in deportation officer roles, as well as for jobs as criminal investigators under Homeland Security Investigations and for attorneys and personnel in the agency's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Sheahan said. As of July, the agency had issued over 1,000 offers to former ICE agents and officers who had left under the Biden administration — a number that has since grown, according to an ICE spokesperson. The administration's efforts to target law enforcement officers, particularly at the state and local level, for recruitment has frustrated local sheriffs. But for the administration, in addition to pushing back on the narrative of unqualified recruits, it also alleviates some of the pressure on vetting and training, given these candidates already come with experience. The criticism facing the agency has reached a fever pitch in recent months, as Democrats, immigration advocates and lawyers decry everything from the masking of agents to ICE's aggressive tactics to increase arrest numbers — with a number of polls showing the agency's decreasing popularity among Americans. A July Quinnipiac University poll found that 57 percent of voters disapprove of how ICE is enforcing immigration law, while another from CNN that same month showed that 53 percent of Americans opposed increasing ICE's budget by billions of dollars. And now, as concerns circulate about the agency's ramp-up, experts are comparing this moment to the rapid build-up of Customs and Border Protection after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States under former President George W. Bush. At that time, the hiring process raised questions about the administration's standards and led to corruption and misconduct at the agency. 'The last thing you want is somebody who has no law enforcement experience whatsoever and is gung ho about working for ICE under Trump,' said Scott Shuchart, a former senior ICE official during the Biden administration. 'That's the worst of all worlds.' It's why some administration officials and Trump allies are warning that no one should expect the number of new agents to increase as fast as the Trump administration has been able to tout new recruitment numbers. The hiring blitz requires building out ICE's human resources department to help sort through the thousands of new applications, officer trainings, office space, vehicles and weapons — a huge undertaking. 'We're trying to be judicious. We're background checking people. We're not taking crazies,' said a Trump administration official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. 'There's this myth out there that we're just taking everybody, and we decline a lot of positions.' Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government newsletter.
The Hill
2 minutes ago
- The Hill
DC officials say Trump crackdown is about immigration, power
Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and other officials in Washington, D.C., say the Trump administration's crime crackdown is really about exerting power and elevating immigration enforcement — not making D.C. safer. While top Trump officials say the high-profile deployments have had the immediate effect of stifling crime in the District, local critics are raising questions about both the geographic placement of National Guard troops and federal officers — who have been most prominent in tourist hotspots and other wealthier parts of the city — and the focus of the criminal crackdown. Of the 556 arrests tallied by the White House since it began increasing federal law enforcement presence on Aug. 7, nearly half of the arrests,233, have been classified by the administration as illegal aliens, a White House official said Tuesday. 'I think it makes the point that this is not about D.C. crime,' Bowser said earlier in the week, adding that the administration should be transparent about its intent. 'Nobody is against focusing on driving down any level of violence,' Bowser said. 'And so if this is really about immigration enforcement, the administration should make that plain.' The list of those arrested includes immigrants with alleged criminal histories of assault, kidnapping, burglary and larceny, the White House official said. But it also includes delivery drivers arrested as they tried to pick up food from commercial venues, sparking a backlash from human rights advocates and some D.C. residents. Fueling the criticisms, the highest profile arrest to date was that of a Justice Department employee accused of throwing a sandwich at an agent of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in a section of the city best known for its vibrant nightlife. Other high-profile or viral encounters have largely centered on immigration. Video captured at least five masked agents who refused to answer questions about what agency they were with as they used a stun gun on a delivery driver before placing the man in an unmarked vehicle. When an onlooker said the officers were ruining the country, one federal agent responded 'liberals already ruined it.' In another case, a man captured video of his delivery driver as he was detained just minutes away, arrested by officers after the Arabic speaker was apparently unable to answer questions posed by officers. The apparent focus on immigration has prompted protests around the city. In one high-profile example, video from Tuesday shows a crowd in the Columbia Heights neighborhood marching behind a group of ICE agents and chanting 'ICE go home' until the agents reach their vehicles and leave the area. The following day, the administration pushed back against the demonstrations, dispatching Vice President Vance, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Union Station, the transportation hub where National Guard troops have been stationed for days. Vance touted the National Guard presence as 'a great example of what's possible when you actually have the political willpower to bring law and order and common decency back to the public spaces of the United States of America,' while Miller railed against 'stupid white hippies' protesting the crackdown. Some Democrats say the president has launched the tough-on-crime effort merely to deflect attention away from the ongoing saga surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender who had past ties to Trump and his elite social circle in South Florida. 'Trump is using DC as a stage and DC residents as props in a political play to distract from his Epstein problem,' Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) posted on X. 'This is unacceptable.' Charles Allen, a D.C. councilmember, cast the takeover as a way to assert control and distract from problems within the Trump presidency. 'Authoritarianism, power, and control — what this has all been about — made plain,' he wrote on X last week. 'It might make sense if he's trying to create compelling TV and distract folks from the real scandals he's facing, but it doesn't make our city safer & it's a dangerous abuse of power and authority,' he added later. Announcing his D.C.-crime crackdown earlier in the month, Trump said it was necessary to combat levels of crime in Washington he portrayed as dystopian. The surge in federal forces would 'rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor, and worse,' he said. But during that announcement, Trump repeatedly turned to the topic of immigration. 'This city will no longer be a sanctuary for illegal alien criminals,' he said. 'We will have full, seamless, integrated cooperation at all levels of law enforcement, and we'll deploy officers across the district with an overwhelming presence.' Initially, the administration deployed 800 unarmed National Guard troops, on top of hundreds of other officers across a host of agencies like the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Since then, the numbers have grown dramatically, with six GOP-led states sending their National Guard forces to D.C. at the request of the administration, bringing the total to nearly 2,000 various law enforcement officers patrolling D.C. Additionally, the Guard members will begin carrying weapons, according to numerous reports. During a press briefing on Wednesday, Bowser made clear that she doesn't support the surge of military troops. 'I don't think the National Guard should be used for law enforcement,' she said. 'Calling women from their homes and their jobs and their families — they have to be used on mission-specific items that benefit the nation. I don't think you have an armed militia in the nation's capital.' The D.C. Police Union, which says it represents 3,000 of the city's law enforcement officers, has hailed the arrival of the federal reinforcements as a necessary step in combating violent crime in the nation's capital. The union posted numbers on Monday indicating that crime in D.C. plummeted in the first week after Trump announced the law enforcement surge, versus the week prior. Violent crimes, the group said, were down 22 percent over that span, while all crimes were down 8 percent. Carjackings saw the greatest change, down 83 percent. 'At the direction of @POTUS, our nation's capital is a SAFER place — and we are just getting started,' U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted Tuesday on X. Bondi said the surge has led to the seizure of 76 guns, including nine on Monday night alone. On Wednesday, Bondi promoted a new campaign from the U.S. Marshals Office offering a $500 reward for information leading to an arrest during the federal surge. 'Together, we will make DC safe again!' she wrote. Violent crime in D.C., which saw a large spike during the COVID pandemic, has since plummeted even long before Trump's policing campaign, however, raising questions about the true effectiveness of the federal surge. Offenses related to carjackings, for example, fell from 319 through the first eight months of 2024 to 190 over the same span this year, according to D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department. Given those trends, Trump's critics see a more menacing campaign, warning that the militarization of Washington's streets brings with it an authoritarian air that's quickly damaged certain businesses. That includes restaurants, which saw a plunge in reservations in the days after the administration's law enforcement takeover. 'The whole region understands that oppression of people in Washington hurts everybody who lives in our region,' Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told MSNBC on Tuesday. 'We don't want to see people's rights being trampled there.' The crackdown comes as D.C. Police officers have been under pressure to do more to assist federal officers with immigration enforcement. D.C. police have traditionally sought to bar its officers from taking actions based solely on immigration status if someone doesn't otherwise have a criminal warrant out for their arrest. But in a move that was later shifted under court scrutiny, Bondi sought to appoint a new D.C. police commissioner while also seeking to unwind D.C. laws limiting police involvement in immigration enforcement. Immigration advocates in D.C. say now any brush with law enforcement could be disastrous for migrants. 'This disturbing policy strips away the rights and safety of our communities. Even the most common police interactions—such as a traffic violation or reporting a crime—can have life-altering consequences for immigrants, including detention and deportation,' Amica Center for Immigrant Rights said in a statement before Bondi's order was tamed by the courts. 'This policy adds to the atmosphere of fear and distrust, perpetuates racial profiling, and criminalizes innocent people.'
Politico
3 minutes ago
- Politico
Here's $50K from ICE
Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond. Send tips | Subscribe | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben Wartime-like recruitment posters. Sign-on bonuses of up to $50,000. Massive hiring events. Reduced age requirements. Superman. It's all been part of the Trump administration's campaign to attract new applicants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And so far, it's brought in more than 110,000 applications, ICE deputy director MADISON SHEAHAN said in an interview with West Wing Playbook. Thirty percent of applicants are military veterans and roughly 10 percent are coming from other federal law enforcement agencies, Sheahan said. The administration's targeting of law enforcement recruits comes amid fears from Democrats and immigration advocates that the Trump administration is going to rely on unqualified recruits to quickly fill the 10,000 new ICE agent jobs they got out of the GOP's megabill. 'This is the first time ICE has ever had a major plus up. So the beauty of that is that we can learn from the best practices of other agencies,' Sheahan said. 'That huge presence that we're seeing from former military and former federal law enforcement — those are people that have been vetted their entire career and have done great work for this country their entire career. And so having them a part of our ranks is really going to be helpful when it comes to a lot of the criticism that we're getting right now.' The speed at which the agency executes the plus up — from 20,000 to 30,000 agents — is a delicate balance. Moving too quickly could amplify concerns that the agency didn't thoroughly vet and train new agents at a time when ICE faces mounting scrutiny. But moving too slowly could delay the agency's efforts to meet the White House's goal of 3,000 daily arrests and 1 million annual deportations. 'We have an opportunity to do this throughout the president's entire term, and we'll continue to do that until our ranks are filled,' Sheahan said. 'Obviously, the pressure is on nationwide for us to serve the American people, and so we want to make sure we deliver for them.' ICE's human resources department is sorting through the 110,000 applications, which include candidates interested in deportation officer roles, as well as for jobs as criminal investigators under Homeland Security Investigations and for attorneys and personnel in the agency's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, Sheahan said. As of July, the agency had issued over 1,000 offers to former ICE agents and officers who had left under the Biden administration — a number that has since grown, according to an ICE spokesperson. The administration's efforts to target law enforcement officers, particularly at the state and local level, for recruitment has frustrated local sheriffs. But for the administration, in addition to pushing back on the narrative of unqualified recruits, it also alleviates some of the pressure on vetting and training, given these candidates already come with experience. The criticism facing the agency has reached a fever pitch in recent months, as Democrats, immigration advocates and lawyers decry everything from the masking of agents to ICE's aggressive tactics to increase arrest numbers — with a number of polls showing the agency's decreasing popularity among Americans. A July Quinnipiac University poll found that 57 percent of voters disapprove of how ICE is enforcing immigration law, while another from CNN that same month showed that 53 percent of Americans opposed increasing ICE's budget by billions of dollars. And now, as concerns circulate about the agency's ramp-up, experts are comparing this moment to the rapid build-up of Customs and Border Protection after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States under former President GEORGE W. BUSH. At that time, the hiring process raised questions about the administration's standards and led to corruption and misconduct at the agency. 'The last thing you want is somebody who has no law enforcement experience whatsoever and is gung ho about working for ICE under Trump,' said SCOTT SHUCHART, a former senior ICE official during the Biden administration. 'That's the worst of all worlds.' It's why some administration officials and Trump allies are warning that no one should expect the number of new agents to increase as fast as the Trump administration has been able to tout new recruitment numbers. The hiring blitz requires building out ICE's human resources department to help sort through the thousands of new applications, officer trainings, office space, vehicles and weapons — a huge undertaking. 'We're trying to be judicious. We're background checking people. We're not taking crazies,' said a Trump administration official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. 'There's this myth out there that we're just taking everybody, and we decline a lot of positions.' MESSAGE US — West Wing Playbook is obsessively covering the Trump administration's reshaping of the federal government. Are you a federal worker? A DOGE staffer? Have you picked up on any upcoming DOGE moves? We want to hear from you on how this is playing out. Email us at westwingtips@ Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe! POTUS PUZZLER During a visit to the White House in the 1940s, former British Prime Minister WINSTON CHURCHILL had what spooky encounter? (Answer at bottom.) The Oval ON THE CLOCK: The White House launched its official TikTok account Tuesday evening, which, erm, didn't go too well. You can take a look at the comments yourselves. For those not on TikTok: The first post is a montage of the White House, with the caption: 'We're so back.' The first comment, which has more than 20,700 likes, is an AI-generated photo of President DONALD TRUMP holding a sign that says 'I'm The Dumbest President in 248 Years.' The second comment, with 12,700 likes, is another AI-generated photo of Trump cuddling with JEFFREY EPSTEIN, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Trump once advocated for banning TikTok, calling it a national security threat, but in his second term has repeatedly extended the deadline for the app's owner, ByteDance, to sell to a non-Chinese buyer. Negotiations have stalled amid the U.S.'s broader trade war with China. Agenda Setting FRIES WITH THAT? Vice President JD VANCE, Defense Secretary PETE HEGSETH and White House deputy chief of staff STEPHEN MILLER this afternoon made an unannounced visit to the National Guard troops positioned at Union Station in Washington D.C., Irie reports. From a second-floor Shake Shack, Vance thanked the soldiers for 'actually keeping this place safe,' referencing their deployment to the nation's capital. 'You guys bust your ass all day. We give you hamburgers. Not a fair trade, but we're grateful for everything you guys do,' the vice president said. His staffers presented them with boxes of burgers. As three of the most powerful men in the world attempted to seize yet another media moment broadcasting the White House's crackdown on crime in Washington, protesters in the station drowned them out. Shouts of 'Free D.C.,' echoed throughout the historic train hall. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Hegseth's unusually large security requirements are straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in Minnesota, Tennessee and D.C., WaPo's TARA COPP, ALEX HORTON and DAN LAMOTHE report. The 'sprawling, multimillion-dollar initiative' has forced the Army's Criminal Investigation Division to staff weekslong assignments in each location to monitor residences belonging to all of Hegseth's former spouses. 'I've never seen this many security teams for one guy,' said one CID official. 'Nobody has.' The Pentagon declined to address several questions submitted by The Post. Spokesperson SEAN PARNELL said in a statement that 'any action pertaining to the security of Secretary Hegseth and his family has been in response to the threat environment and at the full recommendation of the Army Criminal Investigation Division.' DOD acting deputy press secretary JOEL VALDEZ said in a post on X that all three of the journalists involved should face 'severe punishment' for publishing the story. TRIED AND FAILED: Lt. Gen. WILLIAM J. HARTMAN, the acting director of the National Security Agency, tried to protect one of his top scientists from losing his security clearance after Director of National Intelligence TULSI GABBARD pulled clearances for 37 current and former national security officials on Tuesday, NYT's JULIAN E. BARNES reports. The effort was unsuccessful. Gabbard, on orders from the president, fired the scientist, VINH NGUYEN, who was a leading government expert on artificial intelligence, cryptology and advanced mathematics. Hartman called Gabbard in the days before the decision and asked to see the evidence that Nguyen, the agency's chief data scientist, had done anything that merited the removal of his security clearance. Gabbard denied the request. WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT NEXT INTO THE TANK … Trump this morning called on Federal Reserve board member LISA COOK to resign after housing finance regulator BILL PULTE opened a new avenue of attack against the central bank, our VICTORIA GUIDA reports. In recent days, Pulte referred Cook to the Justice Department, saying she 'potentially' committed mortgage fraud, by allegedly naming two different properties as her primary residence on loan applications in 2021. Board members can only be removed 'for cause,' which has been interpreted to mean that the president can't fire a member over policy differences. 'Cook must resign, now!!!' Trump posted on Truth Social. Musk Radar REMEMBER ME? Billionaire ELON MUSK has pumped the brakes on his pledge to start a political party, WSJ's BRIAN SCHWARTZ reports. The former DOGE chief has told his allies that he wants to focus his attention on his companies and is hesitant to alienate prominent Republicans by starting a third party that could poach GOP voters. Since launching his passion project, he's been focused on maintaining a relationship with Vance, whom he has stayed in touch with. Musk has acknowledged that if he goes ahead with forming a political party, it would damage his standing with the vice president. Musk and his associates have told people that he is considering using some of his vast financial resources to back Vance if the VP decides to run for president in 2028. Musk and his team have not engaged with many individuals who have voiced support for the idea of a new party or could be crucial in getting the idea off the ground, including by assisting with getting on the ballot in crucial states. In a post on X, Musk responded to the story, writing that 'Nothing @WSJ says should ever be thought of as true.' What We're Reading The Democratic Party Faces a Voter Registration Crisis (NYT's Shane Goldmacher, with Jonah Smith) Republicans voted to slash Biden-era transportation grants. Their constituents aren't happy. (POLITICO's Chris Marquette and Sam Ogozalek) How DOGE Set Up a Shadow X Account for a Government Agency (WIRED's Vittoria Elliott) A Letter to America's Discarded Public Servants (William J. Burns for The Atlantic) Trump's Tactics Mean Many International Students Won't Make It to Campus (NYT's Anemona Hartocollis) POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER According to MARK NESBITT's book, 'Civil War Ghost Trails: Stories from America's Most Haunted Battlefields,' Churchill took a hot bath — accompanied by a glass of scotch and cigar — at the White House. He emerged from the tub and strolled into the adjoining room, without clothes, supposedly running into the ghost of former President ABRAHAM LINCOLN leaning on the mantle of the fireplace.
