Federal agents were spotted by NBC Boston cameras entering homes in East Boston Wednesday and taking people into custody.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents appear to have stepped up their detention of unauthorized immigrants across the country, taking more than 500 people into custody on Thursday.
A Trump administration official confirmed the arrests of 538 people to NBC News, and said 373 were for criminal allegations and 165 were for noncriminal reasons.
The arrests took place across the U.S., including in Illinois, Utah, California, Minnesota, New York, Florida and Maryland. The cities where the arrests have taken place include Buffalo, New York, Chicago, St. Paul, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Denver.
The Trump administration has said its priority is to arrest migrants with criminal backgrounds.
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The number detained almost doubles the agency's average of 282 arrests a day during the month of September 2024, the most recent month for which data was available.
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Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said ICE agents had raided a New Jersey business, Ocean Seafood Depot, on Thursday but other details were not available. Among those detained was a U.S. veteran "who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned," Baraka said.
"[ICE] agents raided a local establishment in the City of Newark, detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant," Baraka said in a statement. "Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized."
The mayor called the operation "egregious" and said it violated the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.
An ICE spokesperson said that the agency's policy prevented it from discussing ongoing investigations.
In a statement, it said that agents "may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today."
ICE agents were expected to target major sanctuary cities immediately after President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday. And the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday that it was ending a policy that restricted ICE agents’ ability to arrest undocumented people at or near so-called sensitive locations, including houses of worship, schools and hospitals.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest," the department said. "The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense."
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The administration was dealt a setback on Thursday when a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order denying U.S. citizenship to the children of parents living in the country illegally. The judge called the order “blatantly unconstitutional” during the first hearing in a multi-state effort challenging it. His decision prevents the Trump administration from taking steps to implement the executive order for 14 days while lawyers submit further arguments on what is known as birthright citizenship.
Also this week in Boston, federal agents were seen conducting an operation. The agents, wearing vests marked "POLICE — federal agent," could be seen going door to door on Wednesday afternoon in East Boston. At one point NBC10 Boston cameras captured agents putting a man inside a vehicle, apparently in custody.
Neighbors were on edge in the heavily migrant neighborhood concerned about how Trump's new immigration policies could lead to enforcement actions in their communities.
"It is very sad to see someone leaving and not knowing what happened," a neighbor identified only as Bruno told Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra in Spanish.
Jeff Thielman, the CEO of the International Institute of New England, which helps immigrants and refugees, said "It's quite scary and it's causing a lot of concern among people in the community."
He said that if the 11 million undocumented people across the country were deported, "they will take the economy with them, because they work in many industries that are vital."
Janet Fogarty, a committee member in Massachusetts for the Republican National Committee, countered: "We do need immigrants, but there are many people waiting to come into the country legally. It is one of the first things President Trump said he'd do on Day 1 upon retaking the Oval Office, and he certainly has kept that promise. I support it."
In New Jersey, the state Attorney General's Office declined to comment, but other officials weighed in angrily.
"Warrantless searches, jackbooted thugs, veterans detained. After pardoning violent insurrectionists, Trump orders ICE agents to detain and harass innocent people, including a veteran who served our country," U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman said. "This is the reality of Trump’s reign of terror, but it’s not the America generations have fought for."
Fellow Democrat, Rep. LaMonica McIver, whose district includes part of Newark, said her office was in contact with the Department of Homeland Security "to get answers on exactly what happened, and how it was allowed that ICE came in—without warrant and without justification—to detain not only immigrants, but citizens and even a veteran of our nation’s military."
In a joint statement, New Jersey's U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim said they were "concerned" about the operation. Such events "sow fear in all of our communities — and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics," they said.
Julia Ainsley and Didi Martinez of NBC News contributed to this report.