Newsman: Federal authorities say 2,100 people being taken into custody in a month-long enforcement operation conducted across New York resulted.
The operation, called “Operation Rotten Apple,” ran from late July through late August and targeted individuals across New York State, according to federal officials at the news conference.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullin held the news conference in New York on Tuesday where the ICE Field Office Director Genalo emphasized that even though the arrests may not all be the “worst of the worst,” they all represent people who “choose to take a shortcut,” rather than use legal immigration means.
“It was precise, it was effective,” he said. “Make no mistake, this is personal for me.”
“These arrests included gang members, rapists, murderers, and child predators, which I believe there is a special place in hell for those individuals,” Mullin said. They claim all 2,100 were criminals.
Mullin said criminal history is not a determining factor in enforcement actions involving people who are in the country illegally.
“If you are here illegally, regardless of your status, if you are a convicted criminal or not, you are still in this country illegally, and it is our job to hunt you down and to deport you,” he said.
New York Governor Cathy Hochul challenged the characterization of those taken into custody and questioned whether federal authorities were continuing to target serious offenders.
“It seems like in the last year and a half, you would have already moved the worst of the worst and the baddest of the bad. And now, to make your quotas, you’re going after innocent people. People who are not committing crimes,” Hochul said.
Hochul, meanwhile, said she is seeking $87 million in federal funding designated for police enforcement and counterterrorism efforts.
“Over the last three years, the teams that use these funds have been responsible for 145 major arrests, disruptions and leads across 10 states. You know what that translates into? Lives saved,” Hochul said.
DHS secretary Mullin argued that New York City’s and New York state’s sanctuary provisions make federal enforcement efforts more difficult and more dangerous because of what he described as a lack of cooperation between federal agents and local police. He said that position is one reason he does not believe New York should receive federal funding.
In the past, many New York judges have issued decisions to the contrary, allowing the release of people arrested by ICE with protective status or applying for asylum. ICE’s own data shows that only about 31% of people in ICE detention have been convicted of a crime.
Since then, community organizations have said ICE has surged enforcement in many neighborhoods, including across Queens and Brooklyn.
Hochul reacted to Mullin’s address Tuesday saying,
“There’s no way that that number constitutes people who committed crimes [in a] way that we consider a crime in New York State. They consider anyone who crossed the border a criminal,” Hochul said. “So don’t fall for that.”
