Mass deportations are what Trump wants. An encounter with immigration officials demonstrates the difficulties

NEW YORK (AP) — Before daybreak, the immigration agents sat in their cars next to a two-story structure. An officer’s voice crackled over the radio as a New York subway line rumbled overhead.

Using a phrase for target, he stated, “I think that’s Tango,” after observing for around two hours. “Gray sweatshirt.” Pack a backpack. moving swiftly.

A 23-year-old Ecuadorian man who had been found guilty of sexually abusing a minor was encircled by immigration authorities and placed in handcuffs.

“A common misconception is that officers can sweep into a community and pick up a wide swath of people who are in the United States illegally and send them to their home countries,” said Kenneth Genalo, chief of Enforcement and Removal Operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York.

Genalo referred to it as “targeted enforcement.” “We don’t pick people up and transport them to JFK and board an aircraft.”

People are very interested in how Donald Trump, a Republican who campaigned on a platform of mass deportations, would implement his immigration policies now that he is back in the White House. His goals could conflict with the reality that enforcement and removals-focused agents, like as the New York team that provided The Associated Press with an inside look at its activities, must deal with: The amount of cops available to carry out the task is outnumbered by the number of individuals currently on its lists to target.

Deportation priority have been reduced by the Biden administration to recent border crossers and dangers to public safety. According to Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming “border czar,” officials in the next administration would also give priority to those who are dangerous, such criminals, before addressing immigrants who have been ordered to leave the country by courts.

Homan has, however, hinted that enforcement may be broader, saying recently on Dr. Phil’s Merit TV, “If you’re in the country illegally, you got a problem.”

It’s a challenging task.

another 660,000 individuals under immigration control have either been found guilty of a crime or are being investigated, while another 1.4 million individuals have final orders of removal. Only 6,000 ICE officials are responsible for keeping an eye on foreign nationals in the nation and identifying and expelling those who are not allowed to remain.

Since their caseload has nearly doubled to 7.6 million over the last ten years, those personnel levels have essentially stayed the same. During periods of high immigration last year, almost 10% of that workforce was diverted from their usual employment to go to the U.S.-Mexico border.