According to a new poll, a majority of Americans favor the idea of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids to arrest and deport illegal immigrants who have outstanding deportation court orders.
A Morning Consult poll found that 51% of respondents, including almost half of independent voters (46%), liked the idea. The survey, which was conducted between July 12-14, found nearly two-thirds of Republicans “strongly” supporting the raids.
Morning Consult reported, “About a third (34 percent) of voters said they heard ‘a lot’ about the raids, including 39 percent of Democrats, 32 percent of Republicans and 30 percent of independents.”
Additionally, 45% of respondents felt there was a crisis at the southern border, three percentage points higher than when the question was asked in January.
Before the raids conducted by ICE last Sunday, ICE spokesman Matthew D. Bourke stated, “As always, ICE prioritizes the arrest and removal of unlawfully present aliens who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security. However, all of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and — if found removable by final order — removal from the United States.”
On June 17, President Trump had stated that the raids would be forthcoming, tweeting, “Next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States. They will be removed as fast as they come in. Mexico, using their strong immigration laws, is doing a very good job of stopping people long before they get to our Southern Border. Guatemala is getting ready to sign a Safe-Third Agreement. The only ones who won’t do anything are the Democrats in Congress. They must vote to get rid of the loopholes, and fix asylum! If so, Border Crisis will end quickly!
Trump temporarily delayed the action, tweeting on June 22, “At the request of Democrats, I have delayed the Illegal Immigration Removal Process (Deportation) for two weeks to see if the Democrats and Republicans can get together and work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophole problems at the Southern Border. If not, Deportations start!
Fox News has reported that ICE released a report showing how important it is to deport illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. Fox News stated:
The first of what will be quarterly “Declined Detainer Reports” details incidents from the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, where law enforcement agencies arrested undocumented immigrants, ignored ICE requests to hold them until federal authorities could pick them up, and then those individuals were arrested on new charges. The report features highlighted cases, including ones where the arrests were for rape, murder, assault, burglary, car theft, drug possession, and DUI.
The report pointed out that when cities do not cooperate with ICE, larger-scale operations are necessary, stating:
At-large enforcement actions can carry greater safety risks when compared to taking an alien into custody in the secure and controlled environment of a jail where, for example, individuals have been screened for weapons. Ultimately, a jurisdiction’s decision to ignore ICE detainers increases the need for ICE’s presence in communities and requires additional resources to locate and arrest removable aliens. This consumes significant investigative hours and strategic operational planning, which may or may not be successful.