Documents Show How ICE Uses Arrest Quotas
By Maryam Saleh, The Intercept
05 July 19
As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at the behest of President
Donald Trump, plans mass raids following the July Fourth holiday, newly
released documents shed light on the tactics the agency employs during such
operations.
The documents, released Wednesday by the immigrant rights groups Mijente,
Just Futures Law, and Detention Watch Network, show that ICE officials are
building arrest target lists for mass raids to meet specific numbers, even
as the agency continues to internally and publicly stress a "public safety"
rationale for immigration arrests.
Most of the documents relate to a planned September 2017 ICE operation that
was meant to target 8,400 noncitizens; ICE called off the raid after details
were leaked to the media. But the documents also include information on five
other ICE operations with similar objectives, pointing to how the agency
repeatedly recycles its logistical plans.
Immigrant rights groups from around the country filed requests under the
Freedom of Information Act to collect information on the planned September
2017 raid, dubbed Operation Mega, and other similar operations. ICE did not
respond to the FOIA requests, prompting litigation by the groups, through
which they have obtained thousands of pages of documents over the last year.
The groups are working on a comprehensive report about the information
contained in the documents, but they decided to release the documents
because ICE is poised to sweep up thousands of immigrants as soon as this
weekend.
Last month, Trump announced a logistically impossible plan to begin
arresting "millions" of undocumented immigrants; later reporting revealed
that ICE was planning to target 2,000 families who were issued final orders
of removal after not showing up to immigration court proceedings. Trump
postponed the operation for two weeks after details were leaked to the
media. Last Saturday, Trump said the raids were planned for sometime after
Thursday, July 4.
"The ongoing threat of mass raids for mass deportations has made it
necessary for us to understand the inner workings of ICE's mass raid
operations," said Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network.
"We've confirmed in government documents that ICE operations are politically
motivated. Immigration raids are meant to terrorize communities and instill
fear."
In response to The Intercept's inquiries about the documents, an ICE
spokesperson suggested that the agency did not use arrest quotas for raids.
"I'm not sure what language you've seen that suggests ICE operates under an
arrest quota," said ICE's Matthew Bourke. "Agency efforts are not based on
competition or meeting a specific threshold. ICE operations are driven by
the agency's mission to enforce the nation's immigration laws and to uphold
national security, border security, and public safety."
Throughout the documents, ICE describes the purpose of its enforcement
operations as furthering public safety. An internal email about Operation
Mega said the goal was to target "all aliens who are present in the United
States in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), in order
to significantly impact public safety, national security, and a lawful
border control and immigration system."
A document about a July 2017 raid that targeted unaccompanied minors and
their families lays out three target categories that include "subjects with
criminal convictions or indicia of criminality." Gang membership is also a
factor ICE considers regarding unaccompanied minors who are 16 or 17 years
old. The memo does not define what "indicia of criminality" actually means,
though it does include a section defining "gang member" and "associate gang
member." Factors that indicate gang membership, according to ICE, include
tattoos that signify gang membership, two or more arrests alongside known
gang members, wearing "gang apparel" or possessing "gang paraphernalia," and
being identified as a gang member by an informant or law enforcement
officer.
ICE, however, built its raids around arrest quotas, which indicates that the
agency was more interested in sweeping up thousands of people than it was
specifically targeting individuals who posed a threat to public safety and
national security.
"These documents expose how quota-driven raids feed the mass deportation and
detention machine that treats people like numbers and targets, instead of
people," said Paromita Shah from Just Futures Law.
For Operation Mega, the agency used immigration, criminal, and commercial
databases to build a target list of 8,400 people that it shared with the 24
field offices for Enforcement and Removal Operations, ICE's
deportation-focused division, around the country.
In one email exchange, a deportation officer in Waco, Texas, asked about how
a certain individual ended up on the target list. The officer noted that the
National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center, which is run by ICE's
National Fugitive Operations Program, helped compile the list, drawing on
information like traffic tickets and utility bills. In response, an ICE
official described the target list as a "kitchen sink type list with a
myriad of sources used to build it."
A deportation officer in Salt Lake City charged with leading the raid in
that area wrote on August 24, 2017, that his field office was "required to
have 240 targets. Boise can provide 50 targets, leaving 190 additional
needed, 95 from SLC and 95 from LVG" - likely referring to Salt Lake City
and Las Vegas, both cities that, along with Boise, Idaho, fall under the
purview of the ICE official based in Utah, according to the agency's
website.
Five days later, in an email chain originating from the Salt Lake City
office, an officer wrote that "our [supervisory detention and deportation
officers] want LVG to provide 200 good targets, and we are on track for
that. To be able to hit 40 targets each day + the collateral arrests, we
will need a number of arrest teams, 3 roving transport vans, and a
processing team." The term "collateral" refers to noncitizens who are not
targets but, because of their proximity to targets, are also swept up in the
raids.
A June 2017 email about a separate operation called Cross Check reveals the
arbitrary nature of the arrest quota. "Able to come up with 15 showing
criminal convictions," wrote an ICE supervisory detention and deportation
officer in Austin, Texas. "I would like to see 30 total on the list. I
realize we may have a hard time finding that many outside of the Austin
proper area, so to fill out the number we are looking for we can go inside
Austin if need be. Main thing is they have Criminal Convictions."
After the operation was concluded, one ICE officer congratulated another on
their "great numbers!"
Even as ICE framed its operations around targeting convicted criminals, the
Trump administration's policy of treating all undocumented immigrants as
equal priorities for deportation meant that hundreds of others got caught up
in the raids as well. A report from the Philadelphia field office following
a raid carried out from February 27 to March 10, 2017, shows that, of the
248 people who were arrested, only 92 were initial targets of the operation,
and only 88 had criminal convictions. That means that more than 60 percent
of the people arrested were "collateral" - those who happened to be in the
wrong place at the wrong time.
A document laying out plans for Operation Mega reveals how ICE's national
headquarters was preparing target lists to share with its two-dozen field
offices, to be reviewed and approved by field office directors in advance of
the raids. The document also underscores ICE's secrecy around the operation
- even when it came to interactions with the legislative branch and local
police. One section, titled "Congressional, Community, and Media Relations"
says, "No proactive outreach shall be conducted with non-law enforcement
entities on the planning or execution of this operation." The guide also
gave ICE offices the freedom not to inform local police departments about
the planned raids if ICE supervisors felt that "operation sensitivities are
expected to compromise officer safety or operational security."
The immigrant rights groups obtained a copy of an August 2017 slide deck
that ICE had used to train its officers on constitutional rights in
preparation for raids. In Texas, ICE officers scheduled a training on Fourth
Amendment rights, which protect against unreasonable searches and seizures,
ahead of the operation. A June 2017 email about Operation Cross Check notes
that "all officers assigned to this Operation have participated in 4th
Amendment training within the past 60 days."
The documents also reveal the enthusiasm of ICE officers to participate in
the raids that terrorize immigrant communities. Ahead of Operation Mega, a
senior ICE officer in Salt Lake City sent out an email soliciting volunteers
for the raid. One officer responded within three minutes, writing, "I would
like to volunteer. Thank you." In an August 2017 email with the subject line
"Operation EPIC," ICE's San Antonio deputy field office director wrote, "I
don't want anyone to feel left out if we can get them in the field we will
but need to ensure we conduct the op properly and account for arrests and
manpower needs."
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