Trump goes after New York migrants in publicity blitz ‘to scare people’, but some arrests routine

NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump’s new homeland security secretary made sure cameras were rolling when she joined federal agents in New York City to arrest migrants, including a Venezuelan man wanted by the Colorado police that Mr Trump had made part of his

anti-immigration campaign narrative.

Secretary Kristi Noem said the publicity created around the arrests was to show that the new administration was taking a different, tougher approach.

Mr Trump’s promises of mass deportations have stoked uncertainty and fear, but at least some of the arrests in New York were not a departure from how past administrations have pursued people charged with crimes, be they citizens or immigrants.

The primary target of the New York operation was Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, a Venezuelan man named in a criminal arrest warrant for armed burglary from the police in Aurora, Colorado. 

In interviews with journalists invited along, Ms Noem referred to Zambrano with disparaging terms like “dirtbag”.

“We are completely changing the game when it comes to removing illegal alien criminals from the United States of America,” she wrote in a social media post, sharing dramatic photographs and videos of the well-staffed pre-dawn action in the Bronx.

Ms Noem did not mention that two other Venezuelan men wanted in the same Aurora incident were arrested in the same Bronx neighbourhood by the same federal agencies in November, before Mr Joe Biden handed over the US presidency to Mr Trump on Jan 20.

In November, journalists were not invited to film, and the Colorado authorities are seeking custody of all three men to face justice in Aurora before any US deportation efforts can begin.

Zambrano and the two other Venezuelans reportedly appeared in a video showing a group of heavily armed men in an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado, which Mr Trump referred to in campaign speeches denigrating immigrants.

In his first term, which ran from 2017 to 2021, Mr Trump deported fewer migrants than his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama. While Mr Biden’s deportations initially lagged behind Mr Trump, he had more US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removals in fiscal year 2024 than any Trump year.

Mr Trump’s new government picked two of the country’s largest cities, Chicago and New York City, for highly publicised arrests by ICE, an agency within the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Both cities are run by Democrats and are home to large immigrant communities. Both have so-called sanctuary laws that restrict the local police and other municipal officers from helping the federal government enforce its civil immigration rules. 

Under Mr Biden, ICE agents routinely arrested dozens of unauthorised migrants in both cities each week.

Public spectacle

Immigrant advocacy groups say Mr Trump’s government turned this week’s arrests into a highly public spectacle in order to amplify fear.

“The point of them is to scare people, to scare New Yorkers, whether they are non-citizens or not,” said Ms Deborah Lee, who runs the immigration law unit of Legal Aid, the Manhattan public defenders group.

Migrant advocates say New York’s leaders, including Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, should do more to inform migrants of their rights and protections.

Ms Hochul and Adams, both Democrats, have said that they believe ICE should arrest and deport whom they view as dangerous migrants, including some who have only been charged but not convicted of a crime.

Adams has unsuccessfully tried to have lawmakers loosen the sanctuary restrictions, which the City Council has rejected saying it would erode New Yorkers’ due process rights.

Asked about this week’s arrests, Ms Hochul told reporters that ICE agents had often arrested people in New York and that the state’s approach had always been clear.

“This is not a new dynamic,” she said. She said she wanted ICE to remove “serious offenders” from New York, but said the state “will not stand for children to be in fear in schools or people in churches cowering in basements out of fear”. 

Adams, who is facing a federal trial on corruption charges to which he has pleaded not guilty, has visited Mr Trump and said he will not publicly criticise the new US President.

Adams said he directed the New York Police Department to work with DHS to enforce the Colorado arrest warrant for Zambrano, and he spoke with Ms Noem before the arrests.

“As I have repeatedly said, we will not hesitate to partner with the federal authorities to bring violent criminals to justice,” Adams’ statement said. “Our commitment to protecting our city’s law-abiding residents, both citizens and immigrants, remains unwavering.”

Zambrano was arraigned in the US District Court in Manhattan on Jan 29 on a federal charge of possessing a gun as a fugitive; the complaint made no mention of his citizenship. REUTERS