DHS secretary posts video of arrest

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Federal law enforcement began “enhanced target operations” as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, arresting a purported high-profile gang member in the Bronx, as federal agencies ramped up immigration enforcement in the city.

Trump’s new secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, posted video Tuesday morning of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arresting the man, who’s a suspected member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, according to multiple reports.

“Enforcement operation in NYC,” Noem posted shortly after 6 a.m. along with video of the man being led out of a first-floor apartment at West 170th Street and Ogden Avenue in the Highbridge section of the Bronx and into a waiting police vehicle.

Noem indicated the enforcement actions would continue with the goal of “making our streets safe,” and by afternoon there was word of at least three locations targeted in the Bronx.

The scope of the operation, and the number of arrests, wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday, but photos from several federal agencies appeared to show multiple arrests, including in the Bronx and Woodside, Queens.

According to officials, the man in custody was wanted in connection with a home invasion at an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado, last month that police said was gang-related.

The U.S. Military began providing facilities at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora for ICE to process migrants on Monday, according to a U.S. Northern Command spokesperson. Military personnel are not involved in the operation.

“ICE requirements for the facility include a temporary operations center, staging area, and a temporary holding location for the receiving, holding, and processing of illegal aliens,” the spokesperson said. “This facility will be manned by ICE senior leaders, special agents, and analysts, as well as members of DHS Components and other federal law enforcement agencies.”

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Eric Adams said the city had “coordinated” with federal officials on arresting the man in the Bronx since he was wanted for violent crimes.

“Early this morning — as it regularly does as part of a multi-agency task force — our city coordinated with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on a federal criminal investigation involving a suspect hiding in New York City,” Adams said. “Beforehand, I directed the NYPD to coordinate with DHS’ Homeland Security Investigations and other federal law enforcement agencies — as allowed by law — to conduct a targeted operation to arrest an individual connected with multiple violent crimes, both here in New York and in Aurora, Colorado, including burglary, kidnapping, extortion, firearms possession, menacing with a firearm, crime of violence, and other charges.”

“As I have repeatedly said, we will not hesitate to partner with federal authorities to bring violent criminals to justice — just as we have done for years,” the mayor continued. “Our commitment to protecting our city’s law-abiding residents, both citizens and immigrants, remains unwavering.”

Similar scenes have been playing out across the country since Trump took office last Monday, including several arrests in NYC last week, but this is among the first raids in the city captured on photos and video during the new crackdown. In recent days there have been targeted enforcement operations by ICE in nearby cities as well, including Newark and Glen Cove, Nassau County.

In a statement, a spokesperson for ICE said: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with federal partners including the FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP and the U.S. Marshals Service, began conducting enhanced targeted operations today in New York City to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities.”

At a press conference Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state would cooperate to “remove individuals who could do harm to our citizens or just should not be here because they had a criminal record before they came here.”

“I want to be clear there has always been ICE raids in the state of New York, even in the past,” the governor said. “I mean this is not a new dynamic. I think there’s more attention on them. But ICE has come in before when they have identified individuals who are part of gangs or committed serious crimes, and that is my understanding of what happened in the Bronx today—that they actually have names of people. So I don’t know at this point, with the knowledge I have, whether it can be described as a wholesale ‘raid’ where you’re scooping up everybody. My understanding is they had specific names of people who committed crimes, serious offenders, and those are exactly the people that we want removed from the State of New York.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York division confirmed it was working with ICE and other federal law enforcement partners on “immigration enforcement efforts” in New York City, including the arrest in the Bronx. It indicated later in the day that the operations were ongoing, posting a photo of another “enforcement effort.”

ICE has made more than 3,500 arrests nationwide since last Thursday, including 1,179 arrests on Monday alone, according to officials.

Border czar Thomas Homan told ABC News on Sunday, “You’re going to see the numbers steadily increase, the number of arrests nationwide, as we open up the aperture.”

“Right now, it’s concentrating on public safety threats [and] national security threats,” Homan said. “But as that aperture opens, there’ll be more arrests nationwide.”

The director of ICE’s Baltimore field office told the Associated Press that “the worst go first,” meaning those with criminal records, but that “nobody gets a free pass anymore.”

Under Trump, officers can now arrest people without legal status if they run across them while looking for migrants targeted for removal. Under former President Joe Biden, such “collateral arrests” were banned.

The Washington Post reported Monday that the White House has put in place “quotas” for ICE field offices, including in New York and New Jersey, requiring them to each make 75 enforcement arrests daily. There are 25 such offices in the U.S., amounting to a goal of about 1,875 arrests a day.

Mayor Eric Adams said last week that the city will “coordinate” with ICE on deporting crime suspects but also said he wanted to “bring down the anxiety” for undocumented people overall, as the city is a sanctuary city that does not assist with civil immigration enforcement.

In a statement on Tuesday, City Hall said: “Mayor Adams has made clear that New York City is committed to working with our federal partners to fix our broken immigration system and focus on the small number of people who are entering our localities and committing violent crimes. We will review the letter and respond accordingly.”

In New York City, immigrant advocates are urging undocumented people to take several steps if they face immigration enforcement, including to stay calm, stay quiet, and not open the door unless officers have a judicial warrant.

Murad Awawdeh, with the New York Immigration Coalition, hopes Trump’s executive actions will be overturned, but in the meantime, he says immigrants should be prepared.

“Everything that New York City and New York State holds dear, will be attacked,” Awawdeh said.

Margaret Martin, of Catholic Charities Community Services, said of the recent Trump order allowing ICE agents to enter sensitive locations like churches: “If law enforcement is there, not on legitimate business, and they do not have a judicial warrant, we may ask them to leave.”

Sarahi Marquez, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient from Mexico who owns a restaurant on Staten Island, said she and others are fearful.

“I don’t know if I myself will be deported, if all my staff will be deported, we don’t know,” she said. “We’re scared, we’re nervous.”

Marquez said she tells her family and her staff “everything will be fine.”

“But how can I say that when I myself don’t know if everything’s going to be fine?” she said.

While the future is uncertain, Marquez said she knows, “I’m helping the economy. My family has two businesses, and thank God we’re doing well. We’re hiring people from the community. We’re trying ourselves to help the country. We love it here.”