Since last Thursday, hundreds have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of a sting targeting 11 different states, with over 50 arrests in Texas alone.
“The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!” President Trump tweeted on Sunday.
And while Trump claims to be keeping his campaign promise, the rate at which undocumented immigrants were arrested over the week doesn’t nearly keep pace with the rate at which the Obama administration deported immigrants throughout his administration.
Consul General of Mexico in Austin Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez says the danger in Trump’s presidency isn’t so much the number of immigrants being deported, but the “new reality” of his administration his rhetoric surrounding the arrests.
Contrary to President Trump’s claim that the people being removed are gang members and drug dealers, Gutierrez says some people being arrested have committed no more than immigration infractions.
Gutierrez says his office works closely with Mexican nationals that are detained, and ICE honors that commitment.
“We interview them. We document the cases. We offer them help,” he says. “We offer them to put them in contact with their relatives and friends in Mexico or here in the U.S. … We try to help them understand what their judicial circumstance.”
Written by Morgan O’Hanlon
