Federal immigration agents continue arresting immigrants by surprise, with reports this time coming out of San Antonio, Texas, where a local pastor says members of her congregation have been arrested during scheduled government check-ins.
For months, immigration officials have rolled out new arrest strategies to meet President Donald Trump’s quota, breaking with rules and protocols that were not commonly used in the past.
According to Pastor Dianne Garcia, who spoke to Border Report, at least 12 members of her church, Iglesia Cristiana Roca de Refugio, have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, seven of whom have already been deported.
“ICE has been very active here in San Antonio. We’ve had a number of members of our congregation detained in various circumstances,” Garcia told Border Report. “Right now there are five members of our congregation currently in detention. In the last three weeks, we’ve had two single mothers detained with their children, one with her 3-year-old toddler and one with her three younger children.”
The pastor said the arrests began six weeks ago and took place when members of her congregation showed up for their mandatory ICE check-in meetings.
“The majority have been arrested when they’ve gone to the ICE office to present themselves for their regularly scheduled check-in,” Garcia said, adding that immigration agents are now targeting people who attempt to follow the law and “do the right thing,” and who often lack any criminal records.
“They’re the ones that are mostly being detained. Almost all of the members of my community have been detained there,” Garcia told Border Report.
In recent weeks, media reports have highlighted one of the most contentious issues in immigration enforcement: a sharp rise in arrests of people with no criminal records. A November investigation by CBS News found that the number of detainees without criminal records has increased more than 2,000% since the start of Trump’s second term.
ICE’s public database, released as part of a transparency requirement mandated by Congress, shows the agency held 65,135 people in detention facilities nationwide as of November, the highest number ever publicly reported.
The data also shows that nearly half of all detainees in custody as of Nov. 16 had no criminal charges or convictions in the United States. They were being held for civil violations of immigration law, including unauthorized entry or overstaying a visa.
ICE reported holding nearly 31,000 people with no criminal charges, compared with more than 34,000 who had either a conviction or a pending charge, though the agency did not specify the seriousness or nature of those offenses.
“It’s really hard to talk to people about having hope when it feels so hopeless and it feels like you could do everything right and still be treated terribly and be detained and separated from your family or deported. It’s really hard to talk to people about the fact that anyone could be detained at any time, and it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a criminal background, that actually what they’re saying is not what they’re doing, that they are targeting anyone they can, I assume, just to have their numbers at a certain level,” Garcia told Border Report.
When asked by the outlet if ICE agents were making arrests at check-in meetings, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Border Report that arrests occur if individuals are identified as having either outstanding warrants, being subject to court-issued removal orders or having committed fraud, crimes or other violations of immigration law while in the U.S.
Originally published on Latin Times
