By Ayo Kehinde
In a sweeping crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested over 460 individuals in multiple states.
The operation, which spanned from January 21 to Wednesday, targeted individuals with criminal histories and undocumented residents.
According to reports from Fox News, the arrests were conducted across Illinois, Utah, California, Minnesota, New York, Florida, and Maryland.
Those apprehended include individuals with prior convictions for serious offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, drug-related crimes, weapons offenses, and resisting arrest.
In a separate operation, ICE agents carried out a raid in Newark, New Jersey, on Thursday, detaining undocumented residents. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka criticized the raid, alleging that ICE agents failed to produce warrants before carrying out the arrests.
“They detained undocumented residents as well as citizens without due process,” Baraka said in a statement.
The arrests involved nationals from countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal, and Venezuela.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order seeking to deny birthright citizenship to children born to undocumented immigrants in the United States.
The order stipulates that children of non-citizens are no longer to be treated as U.S. citizens, excluding those whose mothers are not legally in the country or whose fathers are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
The order also applies to children born to mothers in the U.S. on a temporary basis if their fathers are not legal residents or citizens.
The controversial order has sparked widespread criticism, with many calling it unconstitutional.
A federal judge in Seattle, Washington, Judge John Coughenour, on Thursday issued a temporary injunction against the executive order, describing it as “blatantly unconstitutional.”
Additionally, 18 states and two cities, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court of Massachusetts, challenging the order. In their arguments, the plaintiffs assert that the 14th Amendment guarantees automatic birthright citizenship and that neither the president nor Congress has the authority to alter this provision.
A second lawsuit has been filed by four other states in the Western District of Washington, intensifying the legal battle over the controversial policy.
The ongoing crackdown and the contentious order have drawn sharp criticism from immigrant advocacy groups, legal experts, and local officials, who argue that these measures undermine the rights of immigrants and erode trust in federal authorities.
As the debate over immigration policies intensifies, the actions of ICE and the executive order have placed the United States’ immigration system under heightened scrutiny, further polarizing opinions on the path forward.
