Immigration arrests in San Francisco region up 77% since Trump took office

Since President Donald Trump took office in January Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have shot up in Northern California since the last year-plus of Joe Biden s administration according to not long ago issued material from ICE Related Articles U S completes deportation of men to South Sudan after weeks of legal wrangling Opinion Masked law enforcement undermines inhabitants safety and democratic norms Supreme Court clears way for deportation to South Sudan of several immigrants with no ties there Mexican boxer Julio C sar Ch vez Jr arrested by ICE for deportation federal bureaucrats say Can California Democrats require ICE agents to unmask and show IDs The sharp rise in immigration enforcement comes amid the Trump administration s push to deport millions of immigrants lacking permanent legal status The effort has even strained the ability of sanctuary communities such as Santa Clara County to resist ICE arrests in their area From January through May of this year there have been an average of monthly arrests in the San Francisco Area of Responsibility That area includes arrests in all of Northern California from the Central Valley to the Oregon dividing line as well as enforcement in Hawaii Guam and Saipan according to ICE In the last months of the Biden administration monthly arrests in the same area averaged The San Francisco spike is slightly less dramatic than the spike in enforcement nationwide where monthly arrests averaged from September through December and have grown to monthly arrests since January The records was acquired by the Deportation Information Project a group of academics and lawyers aiming to make immigration facts general through Freedom of Information Act requests Arrest content goes from September through June Functionaries from ICE did not respond to a request for comment from the Bay Area News Group The spike in arrests is not unprecedented mentioned Caitlin Patler an associate professor of population initiative at the University of California Berkeley in she noted there was a very dramatic spike in arrests at the beginning of Trump s first term But it is extraordinary and has sparked fear among immigrant communities as waiting lists for legal assistance grow and calls of foreseen ICE sightings to rapid response hotlines surge according to local immigrant assistance nonprofits The biggest changes to immigration enforcement nationally since January Patler commented include revoking policies that blocked immigration enforcement from entering certain protected sites such as schools and churches as well as increased collaboration with local law enforcement and partnerships with other federal agencies That collaboration is possibly what I would assume is driving this spike in San Francisco Patler reported What would it look like if we didn t have a sanctuary strategy in place California has laws that block state and local law enforcement agencies from collaborating with ICE in a large number of cases a status that Trump has disclosed is obstructing the federal ruling body from conducting immigration enforcement even as federal agents find methods to make arrests locally Earlier this week the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles claiming its sanctuary city policies break federal law and discriminate against immigration personnel The Trump administration made clear that it would target California and other places that have sanctuary policies Patler disclosed It has made good on that promise The change in tactics is evident in the new statistics from the agency which shows that since January the number of arrests are up while the share of people arrested with criminal convictions has decreased The agency has three categories for those they arrest convicted criminal pending criminal charges and other immigration violator Immigration violations include overstaying a visa reentering the United States after being deported or being required for a crime abroad People with criminal convictions made up of those arrested from January through May in the San Francisco Area down from of those arrested from September through December And in the first days of June just of those arrested in the region had criminal convictions A large portion of arrests by immigration enforcement comes from other federal state and local law enforcement agencies through the Criminal Alien Activity which focuses on the arrest of people who are incarcerated Average monthly arrests under that undertaking have tipped up slightly from a month in the last months of the Biden administration to in January through May of this year but the change in the category does not account for the notable increase in overall arrests The largest increases in apprehension methods has been in categories ICE has described as at-large arrests which they define as arrests conducted in the region as opposed to in a custodial setting such as a prison or jail Those types of arrests have increased from an average of per month at the end of the Biden administration quadrupling to per month in in the San Francisco Area of Responsibility This is just a very clear indication that they re using this tactic of arresting people at home on the street in the courtroom at churches Patler declared Since January the nationalities with the highest representation in arrests in the San Francisco Area included Mexico with Guatemala with Honduras with and El Salvador with Specific other countries had much smaller numbers usually fewer than individuals such as Argentina Canada and France Nationwide the highest number of arrests were individuals from Mexico Guatemala Honduras Venezuela and El Salvador Greater part people arrested in the San Francisco Area under Trump have been between the ages of and Arrests peaked among those in their s and s with the highest number arrests at age Multiple people in their late s to early s also had high arrest numbers with above arrests per age group Arrests were lower but still present among young people There were three arrests each of -year-olds -year-olds and -year-olds A total of children under the age of were arrested There were also a handful of arrests of seniors with the oldest being years old Across the country arrests were most of notable among people in their s and s and the highest numbers of arrests were between the ages of and with each age group having more than arrests The peak was age with about arrests The increase in enforcement has fueled fear in local immigrant communities reported Mariam Arif communications and rise director for the Services Immigrant Rights Mentoring Framework a nonprofit organization There is a lot of fear Arif explained It s just causing panic and chaos and uncertainty across the Bay