While Trump enhances immigration raids, some migrants go underground

The feeling of fear and anxiety is inflamed through US immigrant communities, as the Trump administration increases the arrests of undocumented migrants, criminals, and those without criminal stories.

Federal officers have arrested thousands of undocumented migrants since Donald Trump took office on January 20, increasing raids in cities across the country, including Chicago, New York, Denver and Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt said that while the arrests of criminals would be prioritized, no one in the country was illegally “out of the table”.

In some communities, arrests have prompted some migrants to skip work or keep their children at home from school.

More than 3,500 undocumented migrants have been arrested since Trump returned to the White House, including just over 1000 on Tuesday, 969 on Monday and 1179 on Sunday, according to the daily statistics published by immigration and customs implementation (ICE).

For comparison, an average of 310 were made in the fiscal year 2024, when Joe Biden was in office, according to the agency.

Immigration officials have identified those raids as “targeted implementation operations” that led to the arrest of violent gang members and dangerous suspects and have replaced agents from other federal law enforcement authorities to help enhance arrests.

“I have not seen anything remote in this way, and this is only the first few days of the Presidency,” said Gina Amato Loff, based on California’s lawyer for the Immigrant Immigrant Project in the right immigration intercession. “Nothing of this magnitude.”

D -Ja Lough added that “the stated intention is to create shock and awe.”

“It works,” she said. “He also creates a terror in the community.”

The White House and Ice have published some of these arrests, showing pictures of the suspects and providing details about their countries of origin and crimes, which include sexual crimes, attacks and crimes of drug trafficking.

But the White House made it clear that every undocumented migrant was caught in these attacks – whether criminals or not – are subject to arrest and deportation, although it is simply illegal to be illegal.

Earlier this week, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt claims that “all of them” are criminals.

“They illegally violate the laws of our nation and therefore the criminals are far away, as this administration goes,” she told reporters on Tuesday.

Arrests have already had a freezing effect on many immigrant communities in the United States.

Lough, for example, said that underdeveloped customers have expressed fear of going to any government agency – even to receive a driver’s license – or seek medical attention in hospitals.

“We hear that people are horrified and we get calls left and right,” says Michael Lukens, CEO of the AMICA Immigrants Center, an organization that provides free legal representation to undocumented migrants detained by the authorities.

“People are afraid to go to work or send their children to the schools,” he said, adding that the Trump administration had blocked his organization’s efforts to enter the detention facilities to meet the detainees.

“That’s exactly what the White House wants – to inspire the fear of people and make them leave,” he said. “This is not something we have ever seen.”

Among those who have expressed fear is Gabriela, a Bolivian migrant, who entered the United States more than 20 years ago, who hid under a pile of corn stems in the trunk of the case of a smuggler on the trip.

Now a housekeeper in Maryland, Gabriela Was originally secured by Trump’s election victoryBelieving that he will only focus on criminals and that many migrants will benefit from an improved economy.

But nine days in the administration, she says she has become afraid, along with many of her neighbors, after seeing that the ice has conducted operations in the nearby communities.

“Many people in my building have stopped sending their children to schools. No one even goes to church,” she told the BBC. “We set up on a table online.”

Gabriela said she started packing her belongings in the hope that if she was arrested and deported, acquaintances could be able to send them back to Bolivia.

Another undocumented migrant, a Mexican citizen named Carlos, who lives in New York, told the BBC’s fears about possible arrests, has misled some underground.

“We heard that ice came to a building not far from me,” said Carlos, whose son is a US citizen, born in New York.

Like Gabriella, Carlos was initially cautiously optimistic about Trump’s electoral victory and thought he would indirectly take advantage of Trump’s promises to strengthen the economy and more inflation.

“It’s scary. I avoided being on the street more than I needed,” he added. “I have no problem with the arrest of criminals. But we continue to hear that other people – workers – are also taken away.”

Both Gabriela and Carlos wanted to be identified only by their names, fearing retribution or attention from the authorities.

It is not clear how many arrested have a criminal history and how much the first Trump administration called “security” was.

The NBC reported that on January 26, only 52% of those taken were considered “criminal arrests”, citing administration officials.

The BBC contacted the White House for comment on the figures.

When asked about a briefing number in the press on Tuesday, Da Levitt only said that anyone who “has violated the laws of our nation” is a criminal.

Ice raids are part of a more large effort by the Trump administration to be pressed against undocumented migration in the United States, which also involves declaring an emergency at the southern border and advanced processes that allow rapid leakage.

On Thursday, Trump signed the so -called Laken Riley law in a law requiring undocumented immigrants who were arrested for theft or violent crimes to be prisoned in anticipation of a lawsuit.

The bill, named after Lake Riley, a nursing student in Georgia, killed last year by Venezwell, was approved by Congress last week, an early legislative victory for the administration.

When signing, Trump said the government would move to set up a facility with 30,000 people for undocumented detainees, doubled the capacity of state detention and making the United States “one step further to eliminate crime migrants”.