Trump said that court decisions were hindering ICE from fully carrying out their duties.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities in Houston arrested 1,505 alleged criminals, including illegal immigrants, transnational gang members, foreign fugitives, and other offenders, according to a Nov. 5 statement by the federal agency.
They were arrested during a 10-day operation in Southeast Texas that spanned from Oct. 22 to 31. The number of arrests in the latest phase of the operation exceeded the 822 arrests made in August and the 543 arrests earlier this year.
The update comes after a statement by President Donald Trump, who said in a recent interview that ICE actions against illegal immigration “haven’t gone far enough.”
Trump said that court orders have limited the agency’s ability to carry out certain immigration enforcement activities.
“You have to get the people out,” he said, referring to illegal immigrants.
“Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown out of their countries because they were criminals. Many of them are people from jails and prisons.”
On Nov. 4, a federal judge blocked the Department of Transportation from requiring states to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement in order to receive grants from the department.
Earlier on Aug. 29, a federal district judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to expand fast-track deportations across the country, arguing that the move violated due process rights of illegal immigrants.
Among the individuals arrested by ICE Houston, there were 17 documented gang members, 40 aggravated felons, one convicted murderer, 13 sexual predators, and 255 illegal aliens who committed a felony by illegally reentering the U.S. after being deported at least once, according to the agency.
In a statement late last month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that ICE officers were currently facing an 8,000 percent increase in death threats against them. Besides the dangers faced individually by officers, through bounties placed on their heads, stalking, and doxxing online, threats to their family members are on the increase.
Commenting on the recent arrests, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Field Office Director Bret Bradford said, “Despite the conditions becoming increasingly dangerous for our officers as a result of the spread of violent political rhetoric and intentionally false information, they continue to put their lives at risk every day to apprehend dangerous illegal aliens, gang members, child predators and other violent criminal aliens who threaten public safety here in Southeast Texas.”
Bradford added that the arrests include a previously deported Mexican Mafia gang member convicted of raping and impregnating his underage sister, and a four-time deported Paisas gang member convicted of aggravated assault.
