In his January 25th executive order Pres. Trump reinstated the Secure Communities program allowing ICE to broaden their enforcement priorities. Since then ICE’s interior arrests of illegal aliens have reached 2014 levels before the Obama administration initiated the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP), which limited ICE to only apprehending illegal aliens who committed felonies or multiple misdemeanors.
According to ICE data from February to May 2017 ICE’s San Diego fugitive operations team arrested 547 people, doubling the number from 242 arrests in 2016 and 267 in 2015. In 2014, before PEP was implemented, they arrested 540.
“We’re still focusing on criminals, but we’re not confined to them,” said Clinton Johnston, assistant field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Diego. “It’s the ability for us to enforce the law across the board.”
“All we’re trying to do is protect the community and remove the threats,” ICE San Diego Field Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations Greg Archambeault said.
Read more on this story at The San Diego Union-Tribune.
