U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents launched “enhanced targeted operations” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Sunday, a spokesperson said, signaling an escalation ordered by President Donald Trump as part of his administration’s efforts to tighten immigration enforcement.
The arrests primarily took place in Dallas, Irving, Arlington, Fort Worth, Garland and Collin County. Federal agents detained 84 people of “varying degrees of criminality,” according to Dexter Henson, the ICE spokesperson.
The full scope of the operations was not immediately clear. Henson said he could not provide additional details on Monday, as officials with the ICE Dallas field office were in the process of reviewing the cases against those detained.
Trump ran for re-election promising to enact an unprecedented “mass deportation” operation. On his first day in office, he signed a number of sweeping executive orders aimed at limiting immigration.
Since Sunday, ICE operations were reported in a number of Texas cities, including Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Brownsville and McAllen.
White House border czar Tom Homan has said the arrests of people with criminal histories would be prioritized.
Homan told ABC News on Sunday that the Trump administration was in the “early stages” of its deportation plan.
While the initial focus is on public safety and national security threats, Homan said, “as that aperture opens, there’ll be more arrests nationwide.”
The total detention capacity for ICE in North Texas was not immediately known, but Henson said the agency was operating below capacity as of Monday and had additional space available in contracted facilities.
