ICE crackdown in Indiana: 426 arrested without incident in five days

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers continue to expand operations through partnerships with state and local agencies nationwide without incident.

In a recent five-day enforcement operation in Indiana, “Operation Safe Community-Indiana,” 426 illegal foreign nationals were arrested, including those with extensive criminal histories.

Their combined criminal histories include sex crimes, assault and battery, domestic assault, drug trafficking, assault with a dangerous weapon and other weapons crimes, fraud, identity theft, burglary, property damage, driving while intoxicated, among other charges and convictions.

“Operation Safe Community-Indiana reflects ICE’s continued commitment to protecting Hoosier communities by working alongside our state and local law enforcement partners to arrest and remove criminal alien offenders who pose threats to public safety,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations acting Assistant Director Patricia Hyde said. “This operation underscores the fact that when law enforcement agencies cooperate, the American people are safer. We thank our state and local partners for their support and continued commitment to protecting communities across Indiana and the nation.”

While much of the operation was focused on arresting illegal foreign national offenders in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, ICE officers also conducted targeted immigration enforcement actions statewide.

“ICE officers worked relentlessly to locate, arrest and remove more than 400 illegal aliens from the streets of our Indiana communities during this brief but intense operation,” ICE Chicago Deputy Field Office Director Raymond Hernandez said in a statement. Indiana falls under ICE Chicago’s operational jurisdiction.

“Operations like this make for safer American neighborhoods. Every alien arrested during this operation was in violation of U.S. immigration law, and Indiana is safer today as a result of the hard work of our ICE officers,” he said.

ICE officers also arrested members of transnational criminal street gangs as well as those designated as foreign terrorist organizations, including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, ICE said.

Examples of those arrested include Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, Mexican, Haitian and Guatemalan men with extensive criminal histories who were all in the country illegally. Their criminal histories include sexual battery, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, multiple DWIs, including with bodily injury; aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on a public officer, criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, multiple drugs and weapons charges; domestic battery, criminal trespass, burglary, public records forgery, identity theft, false status documents, credit card larceny, among others, ICE said.

ICE is continuing operations in Indiana as more law enforcement agencies are joining a 287(g) partnership in a concerted effort to identify and apprehend criminal foreign nationals who pose public safety threats and to find missing children.

Congress created the 287(g) program through the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1996, which authorizes ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration functions only under ICE’s direction and supervision.

Under previous administrations, only one 287(g) partnership was used, a Jail Enforcement Model (JEM). The Trump administration is advocating for law enforcement to participate in three: the JEM, a Task Force Model (TFM) and Warrant Service Officer (WSO) model, The Center Square reported.

So far, 45 287(g) applications have been filed in Indiana, with nearly half of them pending, according to ICE data as of Sept. 15. The majority are for the TFM.

The TFM authorizes local law enforcement officers under the oversight of ICE to conduct limited immigration enforcement during routine police duties "such as identifying an alien at a DUI checkpoint and sharing information directly with ICE, as well as apprehending, transporting and detaining them, ICE explains.

Multiple agreements have been signed by agencies in the same county in the Hoosier State, with the most signed or pending in Putnam and Dearborn counties, according to the data. In addition to sheriff’s offices and police departments, the Indiana Department of Corrections, Indiana Department of Homeland Security and Indiana State Police Department are participating in 287(g).

Nationwide, as of September 15, ICE has signed 2,510 Memorandums of Agreement for 287(g) partnerships in 39 states and two U.S. territories.