Immigration arrests across the United States have continued without any slowdown since the midterm elections, even as President Donald Trump has said his crackdown may have been “too tough.” The Associated Press reported on Wednesday, November 11, that advocates have documented arrests from California to Michigan to Massachusetts in the days since Democrats won control of the next Congress, and that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has released no numbers for the post-election period.

Source: Associated Press

This desk has reported the earlier steps in this story: Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s pledge that deportations would continue, and the administration’s arrest target of about 2,700 a day with no post-midterm slowdown. What is new now is the on-the-ground reporting — named arrests in at least four states — and a fresh statement from Mullin. Speaking to Laura Ingraham on Fox News on Tuesday, November 10, Mullin promised “zero change” to immigration policy, said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was deporting roughly 3,600 people a day, rejected amnesty, and said enforcement priorities had shifted toward people he described as murderers, rapists, child predators, drug bankers and cartel members, while leaving room for bipartisan talks on immigration reform. The 3,600-a-day figure is Mullin’s own estimate, not an independently documented count.

Source: DC Times Online

Trump’s own signals have pointed in two directions at once. In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” recorded on Friday, he said of the crackdown that it may have been “too tough” and added, “I’d love to do something on immigration,” suggesting it was time to sit down with Democrats. Hours later, he named Stephen Miller, the architect of his hard-line immigration agenda, as his new White House chief of staff. Mullin, meanwhile, wrote in an online post the day after the election: “Deportations will continue,” warning that ICE takes no days off, “and that this includes on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Election Day.”

Officers assembled outside a Los Angeles hospital

In Los Angeles, masked immigration officers in body armour blocked a hospital emergency-room driveway in a heavily Latino neighbourhood early on Saturday, the AP reported. Erick Gasca, 31, who lives near Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center, said an “unprecedented” number of vehicles with tinted windows and no licence plates were parked near the emergency-room entrance on Friday night. “I thought they were going to raid the hospital or something,” he recalled. The agents’ presence drew some 30 residents and passersby, and footage shot by Gasca’s cousin, Michelle Rivera, shows protesters shouting and officers pinning someone down.

DHS declined to explain the officers’ presence. Bill Essayli, the top Justice Department prosecutor in Los Angeles, said the officers were bringing a detainee for medical treatment, and that two people were arrested for assaulting federal agents. “ICE does not target hospitals, schools, or churches,” DHS said in a statement. The hospital said it was not involved: “White Memorial does not participate in immigration enforcement,” its president, Daniel Fontoura, said in a statement, adding that it would not let such activities “compromise our commitment to patient care and safety.”

A couple arrested at the Phoenix airport

A married couple from Orlando, Florida, was arrested on Saturday at the airport in Phoenix while travelling to a funeral. Gustavo Romanello and Agustin Baccega, both from Argentina, have work permits while they seek asylum after entering the United States about six years ago, according to Jonathan Batchelor, a family friend who was on the phone with them at the time. A mutual friend had died on Friday and the couple was visiting for the funeral on Saturday. As they left the airport, two casually dressed officers asked whether one of them was Agustin Baccega; Batchelor said he heard an officer say, “Asylum seekers are not in the United States legally.” Batchelor said the officers then asked Romanello his name — “and then the guard said, ‘Oh, do you have another set of handcuffs? This is another one.’” Both men remain in detention. They worked as acrobats in Florida and had no criminal record, Batchelor said. DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the arrests.

Twin brothers seized while driving back to college in Alabama

Twin 19-year-old brothers from Venezuela were arrested a day after the election while driving back to college after visiting their parents, stopped in a small city in central Alabama. Luis and Carlos Orta-Santoro, born in Venezuela and living in the U.S. for four years, are soccer players at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama. Relatives say they have pending asylum applications, valid work permits and no criminal records; both are now in an immigration detention facility. “Our family is devastated,” said their aunt, Carolina Orta. DHS said that while the brothers had entered the country legally, they had “overstayed in defiance of our laws,” that pending asylum applications do not confer legal status, and that their case would be heard by an immigration judge. The college said in a statement: “Both young men are valued members of the Wallace State community, and our thoughts are with them during this difficult time. We sincerely hope for a positive resolution to their situation.” WBRC’s reporting on the brothers’ transfer to ICE custody after an Alabama traffic stop was summarised by Signal News Birmingham.

Source: WBRC via Signal News Birmingham

A child taken into custody in San Diego, and daily calls in Florida

In San Diego, an 8-year-old boy from Haiti who had been living with his uncle since his father was deported last year was taken into custody at an ICE office when he was summoned there on November 4; his uncle, who is not a legal guardian, had taken him to the appointment. San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Fabi Bagula and school board members wrote to top administration officials that the boy was left “without the support of their family, community and their school,” adding: “Children should not lose access to education simply because of circumstances unfolding around them.” ICE defended its actions. “This is not child protection — this is state-inflicted trauma,” said Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, while Johny Oxeda, pastor of the Fairmount Haitian Community Church, which helped obtain legal representation for the boy, said he would ultimately benefit by going through legal channels. In Florida, María Bilbao, a campaign coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee in Miami, said she has received at least one call a day from someone detained in South Florida since the election: “Everything remains exactly the same. The arrests have not ceased at all.” Florida Highway Patrol officers and ICE agents have detained people in their cars and at supermarkets, pharmacies and gas stations, and immigrants under supervision have been arrested when they showed up at ICE’s Miami office for appointments, the AP reported.

What happens next

ICE has released no post-election arrest numbers, so the scale of the continued operation cannot yet be measured independently. The Alabama brothers’ case will be heard by an immigration judge; the Phoenix couple remain in detention; and the San Diego case has drawn a formal protest from the school district. Politically, Democrats who won control of Congress in the midterms are preparing to challenge how immigration agencies operate when the new Congress takes over, while the administration — with Miller as chief of staff and Mullin promising “zero change” — says deportations, at the pace Mullin puts at roughly 3,600 people a day, will continue through the holidays.