ICE Reports No Mass Arrests Thus Far In Nationwide Immigration Raids

WUNC | By Anita Rao,

Published July 19, 2019 at 12:22 PM EDT

The raids were intended to target immigrant communities in 10 major cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Houston.

The coordinated immigration raids slated for this week did not take place at the scale announced by top administration officials.

Guest host Anita Rao speaks with USA Today reporter Alan Gomez and immigration activist Emilio Vicente about undocumented immigrants living under the threat of ICE raids.

The raids, which were scheduled to begin on Sunday, were expected to target 2,000 recently arrived undocumented immigrants in at least nine major cities. President Trump claimed on Monday that the campaign had seen success.

But the extensive media attention given to the raids – prompted partially by the Trump administration’s announcement of the operation last week – provided undocumented communities an opportunity to organize methods of thwarting ICE operations. Authorities revised their strategies and launched a series of smaller-scale raids to take place over the course of the week. Thus far, ICE has not reported any abnormal surge in arrests, although reports indicate that officers conducted a number of routine operations in a number of target cities.

Meanwhile, undocumented immigrants across the country remain on edge in anticipation of future raids. Though there were no reports of raids in North Carolina, local activists held rallies and organized networks to report and monitor ICE activity.

Guest host Anita Rao speaks with USA Today reporter Alan Gomez for national context, plus local immigration activist Emilio Vicente, communications manager for Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, provides his perspective on local organizing efforts and the experiences of undocumented immigrants living under the threat of future raids.