OAKLAND PARK, Fla. – Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained nearly a dozen people while conducting an investigation in Oakland Park on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for ICE said special agents were conducting a criminal investigation Wednesday morning.
Agents pulled over a box truck, arresting 11 individuals they refer to as “criminal aliens,” non-U.S. citizens residing in the United States who are accused of committing serious crimes for which they may be deportable.
A congressional report explains that a “criminal alien” may or may not have entered the U.S. legally. All 11 are now being processed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Last month, before President Donald Trump started his second term on promises of ramped-up immigration enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security stated that in fiscal year 2024, DHS “completed over 685,000 removals and returns, more than any prior fiscal year since 2010.”
That included more removals to countries other than Mexico than in any prior fiscal year, officials said.
In recent weeks, ICE officials have said they plan to ramp up enhanced multi-agency immigration enforcement operations, targeting several cities across the nation.
According to ICE, its administrative arrests “occur when an ICE officer physically apprehends an alien for a non-criminal civil infraction. The immigration courts hear these cases. ICE civil immigration enforcement arrests do not always lead to detention.”