A shift toward targeted immigration enforcement operations is reducing arrest numbers in several major U.S. cities, raising questions about policy effectiveness and its impact on immigrant communities.
After months of high-profile, militarized immigration raids in major American cities, the Trump administration has scaled back its deportation strategy, leading to a dip in arrests last month, according to three federal officials and internal government data.
In recent weeks, immigration agents have focused on conducting more targeted enforcement operations, rather than indiscriminate street sweeps, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
Those arrests have been less visible and chaotic than the campaign that led to violent clashes with protesters — including the fatal shootings of two American citizens in January — and generated intense political blowback against President Trump.
The retreat from some of its most aggressive enforcement efforts underscores the challenges the administration faces in meeting its goal of deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. Although hard-line immigration policies were at the heart of Mr. Trump’s appeal to voters in the last election, many Americans have balked at seeing the crackdown put into practice, forcing the White House to recalibrate its approach.
In February, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested roughly 11 percent fewer people per day than they had the previous month, according to internal government figures reviewed by The New York Times. The drop was driven in part by ICE arresting fewer immigrants without criminal records, the data show. Overall, arrests have failed to their lowest levels since September.
The changes have been felt in some of the cities that Mr. Trump’s operations hit hardest.
In Los Angeles, a group that monitors enforcement activity said it had seen a marked decline in sightings of ICE and Border Patrol officers. In Minneapolis, the administration has withdrawn hundreds of federal agents. And in Chicago, immigration officers are no longer stationed at Home Depot parking lots to question and arrest day laborers of Mexican and Central American descent — though locals in all three cities say ICE remains active.
“It’s not at the level that it was prior,” said Andre Vasquez, a City Council member in Chicago. “But they’re not going away.”
On Thursday, Mr. Trump made a major move, including Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary who had become the face of his mass deportation campaign, although he did not voice dissatisfaction with the department’s approach.
Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, disputed that the Trump administration had adjusted its strategy.
“We continue to carry out targeted enforcement operations for the worst of the worst, but as always, anyone in the country illegally is eligible to be deported,” Ms. Jackson said in a statement. “The entire Trump administration will continue to fulfill the president’s promise to carry out the largest mass deportation operation of criminal illegal aliens in history.”
The Homeland Security Department declined to comment.
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