Latest news with #OperationTidalWave
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Largest ever ICE operation results in nearly 1,500 illegals arrested in blue state
Operation Patriot, the largest ever ICE operation, resulted in the arrest of nearly 1,500 illegals, including murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and child sex predators, in the deep blue sanctuary city-heavy state of Massachusetts. Operation Patriot concluded on Saturday after netting 1,461 illegal aliens throughout the Greater Boston area and the state of Massachusetts, which includes numerous sanctuary jurisdictions. Sources at ICE told Fox News that 790 of those arrested had criminal convictions or charges and 277 had final removal or deportation orders. The sources said that all the targeted criminals were roaming the streets of Massachusetts cities freely before being apprehended. The operation ran throughout May and included ICE teams from other states in the Northeast and authorities from the FBI, DEA, and ATF. 36 Chinese, Taiwanese Nationals Arrested After Ice Raids Underground Nightclub In Los Angeles Fox News was embedded with ICE Boston on Thursday as part of this operation. While Fox News was embedded with ICE, agents arrested a murderer, two child rapists, including one living next to a playground, one fentanyl trafficker, one adult rapist, and one child sexual assaulter, all within the span of a few hours. Read On The Fox News App Prior to this, the largest ICE operation was Operation Tidal Wave in Florida, which netted 1,120 arrests. Fox News was told Operation Patriot was significantly more difficult because, unlike Florida, ICE received no local assistance from Massachusetts sanctuary jurisdictions. Sources said the operation was in direct response to leaders in the city of Boston and Massachusetts refusing to cooperate with ICE. The sources said "hundreds" of the arrested targets had been released by local sanctuary jurisdictions with ICE detainers ignored. ICE also said it encountered daily interference from anti-ICE activist groups throughout Massachusetts. 'Rampant' Abuse In Blue State Migrant Shelter System, Says Former Director: 'Colossal Mess' Massachusetts Democratic Governor Maura Healey has responded to ICE's operations in her state with outrage. Healey took to social media on Sunday evening to demand answers after ICE agents arrested 18-year-old Marcelo Gomes, who was an illegal and a junior at Milford High School in Milford, Massachusetts. In her post, Healey says she is "disturbed and outraged" and that she wants answers immediately explaining why the student was taken into immigration enforcement's custody. Healey asserted that "the Trump Administration continues to create fear in our communities, and it's making us all less safe." Homeland Security Removes 'Sanctuary Jurisdictions' List From Its Website Speaking during a press conference on Monday, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons commented on the resistance from Massachusetts leaders, saying: "If sanctuary cities would change their policies and turn these violent criminal aliens over to us into our custody instead of releasing them into the public, we would not have to go out to the communities and do this." Lyons said the operation "just showed we need to come back and we're going to keep coming back because ICE is going to make sure that we keep our community safe and keep our neighborhood safe from these sex offenders and these criminal aliens." Click Here For More Immigration Coverage The press conference was held the same day that an illegal alien in Massachusetts named Lorenzo Lopez Alcario was arraigned on charges of raping a child with force. A copy of the charges obtained by Fox News Digital alleges that the child was tied during the rape. Commenting on the arraignment and on Operation Patriot, Jon Fetherston, a former Massachusetts migrant shelter director, told Fox News Digital that Democratic Governor Maura Healey's resistance to federal immigration enforcement operations is "not only unsafe for ICE agents, it's unsafe for all of us." Fetherston added that Healey's policies are "creating a climate of lawlessness, where even convicted criminals are shielded from federal enforcement." "That's not compassion — it's recklessness," he said. Healey's office did not immediately respond to a request by Fox News Digital for article source: Largest ever ICE operation results in nearly 1,500 illegals arrested in blue state
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
ICE Just Arrested 1,400 People. Here's How Many Had Criminal Charges.
Surprise, surprise: Immigration and Customs Enforcement's biggest operation to date was also a huge failure. Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin reported on X Monday that ICE completed a massive month-long operation in Massachusetts in response to the state's sanctuary policies. Of the 1,461 arrests made as part of Operation Patriot, only 790 individuals—or roughly 54 percent—had criminal convictions or charges. Meanwhile, 277 detainees, or about 19 percent, had received final orders of removal or deportation, though it's unclear whether there was overlap between those two groups. This disastrous sweep comes as the Trump administration sets a new quota of 3,000 ICE arrests per day, and continues to stray from its commitment to target criminals for deportation. Fox reported that many of these arrests were so-called 'collaterals,' a strange euphemism for people whose only crime was being with an ICE target at the time of arrest. Fox said that ICE had repeatedly warned sanctuary city officials that a failure to enforce immigration policies would result in collateral arrests. According to ICE's own numbers, the agency made a minimum 394 wrongful arrests as part of Operation Patriot. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council wrote in a post on X Monday that this latest ICE sweep was even worse than April's Operation Tidal Wave in Florida, which previously held the record for ICE's largest operation with a whopping 1,120 arrests. 'Wow. Just 54% of all the people arrested during this operation had a criminal record at all. That's an even lower percent than the big Florida operation in April, where 63% had criminal history,' Reichlin-Melnick wrote. 'ICE is expanding its dragnet even more to go after people with no criminal history.' ICE told FOX that Operation Patriot was significantly more difficult due to a lack of cooperation from local officials, and claimed that they'd encountered 'almost daily interference' from activists. But Massachusetts officials say that ICE had failed to communicate with them. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey expressed outrage Monday after an 18-year-old student at Milford High School was arrested by ICE, just days before graduation. 'Yet again, local officials and law enforcement have been left in the dark with no heads up and no answers to their questions,' she said.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
ICE Tampa leads construction site operation ending in over 100 arrests
Previous coverage: Gov. DeSantis speaks about immigration in Tampa TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed a huge construction site operation in Tallahassee on Thursday that ended with the arrests of over 100 immigrants without legal status. ICE Tampa led the operation, which included support from the FBI, DEA, ATF, FDLE, U.S. Marshals and IRS Criminal Investigation. Officials did not name the construction site or employer, but said the migrants who were arrested were from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia and Honduras, among other countries. ICE said one immigrant was taken into custody for resisting arrest and is being charged with four counts of assault on officers, and another attempted to draw a weapon. This is not the first large-scale arrest that has happened in Florida since President Trump took office in January and DeSantis signed on as a partner in his mass deportation plans. Earlier in May, over 1000 migrants were arrested in 'Operation Tidal Wave.' All Florida counties have entered into agreements with the federal government to deputize their officers for immigration enforcement, enabling these massive operations to take place. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
USA Today
4 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
ICE detains over 100 in one of Florida's largest immigration raids
ICE detains over 100 in one of Florida's largest immigration raids More than 100 people were detained in one of Florida's largest single-day immigration raids at a Tallahassee construction site on May 29 in what was described as a panicked scene with some law enforcement wearing face coverings and camouflage. Homeland Security Investigations, which operates under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Florida Highway Patrol and other Florida and federal law enforcement agencies conducted the immigration raids at a student housing development site in the College Town neighborhood by Florida State University. Another construction site nearby was raided an hour earlier, worker Michael Martinez told the Tallahassee Democrat, part of the USA TODAY Network. Officers reportedly checked every individual's identification and permits before releasing or arresting them. The Department of Homeland Security said on social media that authorities had "arrested more than 100 illegal aliens, some of which were previously deported and others with criminal backgrounds," calling it "a targeted enforcement operation." People detained in a bus told reporters at the scene they were from Mexico, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Honduras, while officials said others detained were from Guatemala, El Salvador and Colombia. The raids come as President Donald Trump's administration touts its crackdown on migrants who enter the country illegally, expanding arrests nationwide while driving down border crossings. ICE agents have begun detaining people who show up for mandatory court appearances about their immigration cases. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have pushed the state to become the "toughest" on illegal immigration in the country this year, enacting laws and directing hundreds of millions of dollars to state and local law enforcement to expand the state's authority to detain and house undocumented immigrants to comply with Trump's mass deportation mandate. ICE and Florida law enforcement arrested 1,120 people in April during "Operation Tidal Wave," the largest joint immigration operation in Florida history. The operation lasted six days, from April 21 through April 26. In the last month, ICE raids have also rattled Nashville, where nearly 200 people were arrested in a weeklong operation, according to the Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. In northern Nevada, more than 50 were arrested in Reno, Carson City and Tahoe earlier in May and most have been deported, the Reno Gazette Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported. Florida is currently appealing a federal judge's decision to temporarily block a new law creating state crimes for undocumented immigrants entering or re-entering Florida. The raid was likely the largest single illegal immigration sweep in Florida since DeSantis agreed to join in on Trump's aggressive mass deportation agenda. Here's what we know about the ICE raids in Tallahassee, Florida: Who was detained in Tallahassee, Florida, ICE raid? Law enforcement officers detained more than 100 people at a construction site near the Florida State University campus. One detainee, 43-year-old Juan Carlos Hernandez, told the USA TODAY Network-Florida he didn't know where the group was being taken. Hernandez said he did not have a criminal record, and he said others on the bus had asylum cases. "I'm sad," he said. "It's not the time or the moment for us to leave." Many of the construction workers were in bright yellow shirts and jeans – work clothes. Some didn't have any money on them, Hernandez said, others were worried about their family members who they would be leaving behind. Some of those detained were handcuffed, while others were zip-tied. They were led into the back of white school buses with no air conditioning on a day where the feels-like temperature was 86 degrees. Pedro Arroliga, 30, held up his residency card and said he came from Nicaragua and has been a resident for two years. He said federal agents checked him inside the gate of the construction site and said he was OK to go, but then he was taken and put on the bus. Martinez, the worker from the other job site nearby, said agents came and raided his construction site about an hour earlier. People were fleeing and only a few got caught. 'It's just crazy how they're doing this,' Martinez said. 'Disturbing' raid causes halt in city's construction sites Caity Salter, a recent Florida State University graduate, stood behind a fence with other FSU students watching the scene unfold. "Some of the people, the construction workers, (were in) zip ties and they were in a line ... and it was just very disturbing to see that," she said. Ray D'Amico, general superintendent for the plumbing contractor at the construction site, watched his employees, who were zip-tied and waiting to be processed by federal agents. Once word got out about the raid, he said, other construction sites in town stopped for the day and workers went home. Videos of laborers getting tackled to the ground by agents at 9 a.m. spread quickly, and by noon, many of Tallahassee's construction sites were silent. "This is infuriating. This is absolutely ridiculous," D'Amico said. How to locate detainees in custody? ICE inmate search To locate detainees who are 18 or older and in ICE custody for more than 48 hours, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website has an online detainee locator system. According to ICE, you don't have to provide any information about yourself or create an account to use the system, but the system collects information including your internet domain, IP address and the internet address of the website from which you linked directly to the ODLS website. However, ICE says the information is not used to identify or track users and isn't used in immigration enforcement activities. Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY Network-Florida; Antonio Fins and Valentina Palm, Palm Beach Post
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Immigration crackdown: He played Jesus on Good Friday. Ten days later, he was deported.
On Good Friday, Roman soldiers arrested Baltazar and hung him to a cross when he played Jesus in the crucifixion reenactment at St. Peter Catholic Church in Jupiter. On the Tuesday after Easter, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested the 33-year-old diabetic man and 11 of his coworkers in the shade of Trump National Golf Club, at Alternate A1A and Donald Ross Road, as they rode in a truck to work. On the Monday after that, the U.S. government deported him and his co-workers to their native Guatemala as part of Operation Tidal Wave, the immigration crackdown that saw more than 1,100 immigrants detained across Florida. 'It was humiliating,' Baltazar said by cellphone on May 3 from the Central American country. 'They treated me like I was a criminal. My only crime was going out to work for the people of this country." The Palm Beach Post is withholding Baltazar's last name because he has other family members living without documentation in South Florida and he fears they also will be arrested and deported. Baltazar was undocumented and had lived in the Jupiter area for 10 years without legal status to work and even to be in the U.S. The Trump and DeSantis administrations on May 1 in Miramar declared Operation Tidal Wave a success. They said the federal-state effort, made possible by the 287(g) agreements between Florida and U.S. law-enforcement agencies, targeted "criminals," specifically violent ones. Trump administration officials acknowledged that about one-third of those arrested — 400 people — did not have criminal backgrounds. Baltazar appears to be one of them. A search of Florida court records found no criminal offenses for him. Being in the U.S. without authorization is a civil violation, according to federal law. Tidal Wave leaders, however, said the absence of legal status made people like Baltazar eligible for deportation. "I stand by what we've said since Day One, since Jan. 20: If you are in this country illegally, you are a criminal," said Madison Sheahan, ICE's deputy director. "We have zero tolerance for criminal aliens in this country." Baltazar said he told immigration officials he never had issues with the law, that he had worked in construction while in the U.S. and that he was a youth leader at St. Peter's. 'None of that matters now. You are going back to Guatemala,' Baltazar said an immigration officer told him just before he was deported. He and the 11 other men likely won't be the last ones. Florida officials say Operation Tidal Wave will be the new normal nationwide. Through June, the federal government will engage in "strikingly similar" operations in cities across the U.S., Larry Keefe, executive director of the State Board of Immigration Enforcement, said May 12. Immigration crackdown: Good Friday devotion at Gardens cathedral becomes plea for fairness Baltazar was widely known among Hispanics in Jupiter, and his arrest sent a chill through the community. The Rev. Donald Finney, the longtime pastor at St. Peter's, said he was shocked and saddened to hear Baltazar was deported only days after he had seen him at the Good Friday service. Finney described Baltazar as a polite man who volunteered his time and his talents to the church. "This is the ideal person that you could ever ask for," Finney said. "He was a young man filled with faith, working to create a better life and helping others." Hugo De Leon, who manages the Latinos en Jupiter Facebook group, said his group receives several videos weekly showing Border Patrol agents detaining people like Baltazar, who he knew before his arrest. Even though Tidal Wave has ended, De Leon said the fear of arrests persists, with people convinced ICE is patrolling Hispanic neighborhoods and targeting vehicles carrying landscaping and construction workers. "We've never seen something like this before,' said DeLeon in Spanish. "Our people are in panic." The panic follows assurances from Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw to Hispanic groups that his department — the county's largest law-enforcement agency — would not participate in mass immigration sweeps but would pursue "targeted deportations" of undocumented people with criminal records. Federal officials do not always inform local agencies when they are making arrests in their jurisdictions and often take immigrants to federal detention centers instead of county jails. Baltazar said he grew up in a family of agricultural workers. At 23, he left for the United States, but his objective cut against the political narratives of the past decade. His goal was not to create havoc or even a permanent life in America. He found work in construction and began saving his wages to buy land near his village to build his family a house and to return to it one day. Baltazar said he crossed the U.S. southern border in 2015 and reunited with family members in Palm Beach County. Back then, he only knew about growing and picking fruits and vegetables, but his coworkers taught him to pour cement, lay flooring and remodel bathrooms and kitchens. Also from Guatemala, they became like brothers to him. But Baltazar said he found a sense of belonging in the Hispanic ministry at St. Peter's. At first, he attended Sunday Mass. Then he joined catechism classes, where he read the Bible and learned to pray. He became a youth leader and volunteered at events like the crucifixion reenactment. This year, Baltazar was skeptical of playing Jesus, as he had in 2024. He felt the story of a one-time immigrant being persecuted hit too close to home, but playing Jesus was the best way to serve his church family. Baltazar said he felt God cheering for him as he recited the dialogue and prayers at the crucifix. "Jesus called on me and was also preparing me for what would come,' Baltazar said. More: Immigration, housing issues aired as PEACE social justice meeting brings 1,000 to Jupiter Baltazar expected Trump's second presidency would be different than his first. His family and friends said he shouldn't worry. He didn't have problems with the law, he was hard-working and he had become part of the community. Baltazar's anxiety grew, however. He saw videos of Border Patrol pulling over vehicles like the one he rode in to work and detaining those inside. Still, he never thought he would be next. On April 22, the day he was arrested, he said he had an uneasy feeling as he waited for the work van. "I didn't want to go to work that day, but the need to make money won,' Baltazar said. The work van made its way through northern Palm Beach County and onto Hood Road in Palm Beach Gardens. Baltazar said the driver turned north onto Alternate A1A and headed toward Jupiter. Then he saw three vehicles tailing them. 'That's ICE,' he recalled his manager whispering. Baltazar told everyone not to panic. He had attended 'know your rights' sessions and learned they could remain silent and not disclose their names or immigration statuses if they didn't let officers open the doors. The driver, however, got nervous, Baltazar said. Minutes later, ICE agents opened the doors and removed the men from the truck near the main entrance of Trump National, one of three private golf clubs the president owns in South Florida. Baltazar said ICE agents didn't ask for their names or legal statuses. He said they handcuffed them and had them kneel and line up at the side of the road before taking them to a detention facility in Stuart. 'Targeted deportations': Sheriff says PBSO's immigration focus is on felons, not schools, workplaces Once in Stuart, Baltazar said he told officers he was undocumented and diabetic and that his blood-sugar levels were already low and that he needed to eat something or he might pass out. 'Here, in this country, you don't have a right,' he said the officer told him. A female police officer brought him medication and a box of Goldfish crackers. The next day, April 23, the group went to Krome Detention Center in Miami, where they spent two days. Baltazar said they were not allowed to make phone calls. On April 25, Baltazar said the group was driven to North Florida and flown to El Paso, Texas, where they stayed for three nights at the Mexican border. There, Baltazar was allowed to make his only call. Baltazar told his brother he was in Texas and that he was denied a phone call to a lawyer and would likely be deported. His brother answered they had been trying to find him all week and that his employer had tried to post bail for the workers but couldn't find where they were detained. The employer did not return calls seeking comment. On April 28, a military plane took off with Baltazar and his 11 coworkers. He said it did so without having him sign a deportation order, which usually marks the start of the removal process and allows for court hearings. The plane first stopped in El Salvador, home of the CECOT prison, which frightened Baltazar. It took off again and landed in Guatemala, where the government had a bus to take the men home. "Ever since they detain us, we stayed together," Baltazar said. They gathered before getting on the bus and "we gave each other the last hug as brothers.' Jupiter's population since 2000 has grown by nearly 50%, to about 61,000, and its Hispanic population has grown with it. About 18% of the town identifies as Hispanic, according to the 2020 census, a total that does not count undocumented people like Baltazar. Jupiter is home to the El Sol Community Resource Center, which since 2006 has helped people like Baltazar and their families make a life for themselves in the U.S. Jill Hanson, a Jupiter attorney, is El Sol's co-founder and past president. She said the DeSantis administration used Tidal Wave not to go after dangerous criminals but rather to deport the most vulnerable undocumented immigrants, the day laborers who make up a large part of Florida's workforce. These are people who are ready to work when employers, from roofers to builders to landscapers, need help on particular days. Roundups of day laborers also have been reported in other U.S. cities. "It's affecting more than just their business," said Hanson, who knew of Baltazar before his deportation. "It's affecting the people who have been here living in the shadows, but never with this fear that if you're a worker and you aren't doing anything wrong, you could be deported." Finney came to St. Peter's in 2003, three years before El Sol was founded. He said he has seen Jupiter grow into a diverse, inclusive place with the effort of churches, hospital, educational center and nonprofits. Now immigrant families are living in fear, Finney said. Parents tell him they are scared of going to work, dropping off their kids at and coming to church services. "So many groups in Jupiter have been instrumental in creating kind of a safe environment for the immigrant community here in Jupiter," Finney said. "Now, the crackdown and deportations seem to have really hurt the efforts that everyone has worked on for the last 20 years." Baltazar was happy to see his family after 10 years, but he came back to an unfinished house. The bare foundations are laid, but it doesn't have water or electricity and it's not connected to sewers. For now, Baltazar will go back to working the fields, the only job available in his village. He said what he left behind in Jupiter will haunt him. 'I shed tears and cried because I felt like I left a family and life in Jupiter,' Baltazar said. 'I was being responsible, but I didn't do everything I wanted to do.' Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres and Palm Springs for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@ Support local journalism: Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida immigrant went from playing Christ on cross to being deported
