Only a handful of arrests appeared to take place, and they were reported in only a few cities. That was much different from the nationwide show of force that had originally been planned, in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were expected to fan out in unison Sunday morning across immigrant communities in major cities. But authorities said more arrests would follow through the week.
The plans were changed at the last minute because of news reports that had tipped off immigrant communities about what to expect, according to several current and former Department of Homeland Security officials familiar with the operation. Instead of a larger simultaneous sweep, the authorities made a secondary plan for a smaller and more diffuse scale of arrests rolling out over roughly a week, giving individual ICE field offices discretion to decide when to begin.
The first reports came in Friday and Saturday. In Chicago, a mother was a arrested with her daughters, but that family was immediately released under an agreement to be closely supervised, according to a person familiar with the operation.
In New York, two “ICE enforcement attempts” were reported Saturday in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn, with a third incident in Harlem, according to the New York Mayor’s Office of Immigration Affairs. “No arrests were made to our knowledge,” the office said in a statement.
An additional operation was reported in Florida.
The immigration authorities planned to continue making arrests throughout the week. They identified at least 2,000 targets of the operation, but may ultimately arrest far fewer. In most such operations in the past, only 20 to 30% of the targets were apprehended.
Because agents cannot legally use force to enter the homes of their targets, they rely on the element of surprise to be successful, suggesting that the current, highly publicized operation could yield an even smaller proportion of arrests.
All of those targeted have been issued orders of deportation.