(MIAMI) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and law enforcement from the state of Florida have arrested 780 migrants who are in the United States illegally in a four-day operation beginning Monday, according to statistics obtained by ABC News.
The operation, dubbed “Operation Tidal Wave” uses ICE’s 287(g) authority, which allows for state and local law enforcement agencies to be deputized and to arrest those in the U.S. illegally. State and local agencies allow for ICE to be in jails and on task forces, according to the agency.
“I think the main reason why this operation is significant is because it’s the first of its kind,” Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, told ABC News. “It’s one that not only we’ve been doing what we have, but we have surged all our federal partners together along with Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement [and] Removal Operations, which are all the enforcement arms of ICE, but we’re also using all our 287(g) partners in the state of Florida. We’re using state, local and county law enforcement agencies to assist us in our operations.
“So this is one of the first large-scale missions we’ve done like this ever,” he added. “We brought a ‘whole the government’ approach with cooperative jurisdictions that want to help ICE secure communities in neighborhoods and remove public safety threats from our neighborhoods.”
The partnerships are a “force multiplier,” he said.
“State troopers, local police officers, county sheriffs — they’re our eyes and ears,” he said. “They encountered these criminal aliens out and about during their regular duties, and they’re able to go ahead and identify those public safety threats for us.”
ICE and officials from Florida law enforcement, which includes the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, arrested 275 people in four days with final orders of removal — meaning they can be removed from the country in short order.
Madison Sheahan, who serves as the ICE deputy director, told ABC News that the partnerships will continue.
“We’ve seen historic partnerships with the state of Texas that has been going on and being able to expand. We’ve seen historic partnerships in Virginia as well as many other states that are coming to the table, even states that you wouldn’t necessarily always think of as border states,” she said.
These 287(g) operations will continue across the country in partnership with state and federal law enforcement, resulting in successful enforcement operations, according to the officials.
Since the beginning of the administration, there have been 428 new 287(g) agreements signed with state and local law enforcement agencies, representing a 371% increase, Lyons noted.
Lyons said the partnerships with state and local law enforcement are “making communities safer.”
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