U.S. immigration authorities arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least a half-dozen states this week in a series of raids that marked the first large-scale enforcement of President Trump’s Jan. 25 order to crack down on the estimated 11 million immigrants living here illegally. 
 
 Officials said the raids targeted known criminals, but they also netted some immigrants without criminal records, an apparent departure from similar enforcement waves during the Obama administration. Last month, Trump substantially broadened the scope of who the Department of Homeland Security can target to include those with minor offenses or no convictions at all. 
 
 Trump has pledged to deport as many as 3 million undocumented immigrants with criminal records. 
 
 Immigration officials confirmed that agents this week raided homes and workplaces in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, the Los Angeles area, North Carolina and South Carolina, netting hundreds of people. But Gillian Christensen, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said they were part of “routine” immigration enforcement actions. ICE dislikes the term “raids,” and prefers to say authorities are conducting “targeted enforcement actions,” she said. 
 
 (The Washington Post) 
 
 Christensen said the raids, which began Monday and ended Friday at noon, found undocumented immigrants from a dozen Latin American countries. “We’re talking about people who are threats to public safety or a threat to the integrity of the immigration system,” she said, noting that the majority of those detained were serious criminals, including some who were convicted of murder and domestic violence. 
 
 [For years, immigration authorities gave this Arizona mother a pass. Now she has been deported.] 
 
 Immigration activists said the crackdown went beyond the six states DHS identified, and said they had also documented ICE raids of unusual intensity during the past two days in Florida, Kansas, Texas and Northern Virginia. 
 
 That undocumented immigrants with no criminal records were arrested and could potentially be deported sent a shock wave through immigrant communities nationwide amid concerns that the U.S. government could start going after law-abiding people. 
 
 “This is clearly the first wave of attacks under the Trump administration, and we know this isn’t going to be the only one,” Cristina Jimenez, executive director of United We Dream, an immigrant youth organization, said Friday during a conference call with immigration advocates. 
 
 ICE agents in the Los Angeles area Thursday took a number of individuals into custody over the course of an hour, seizing them from their homes and on their way to work, activists said. 
 
 David Marin, ICE’s field director in the Los Angeles area, said in a conference call with reporters Friday that 75 percent of the approximately 160 people detained in the operation this week had felony convictions; the rest had misdemeanors or were in the United States illegally. Officials said Friday night that 37 of those detained in Los Angeles had been deported to Mexico. 
 
 “Dangerous criminals who should be deported are being released into our communities,” Marin said. 
 
 Spanish language radio stations and the local NPR affiliate in Los Angeles have been running public service announcements regarding the hourly “Know Your Rights” seminars the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles scheduled for Friday and Saturday. By the time the 4 p.m. group began Friday, more than 100 others had gathered at the group’s office in the Westlake neighborhood just outside downtown. 
 
 A video that circulated on social media Friday appeared to show ICE agents in Texas detaining people in an Austin shopping center parking lot. Immigration advocates also reported roadway checkpoints, where ICE appeared to be targeting immigrants for random ID checks, in North Carolina and in Austin. ICE officials denied that authorities used checkpoints during the operations. 
 
 [The ‘sanctuary city’ on the front line of the fight over Trump’s immigration policy] 
 
 “I’m getting lots of reports from my constituents about seeing ICE on the streets. Teachers in my district have contacted me — certain students didn’t come to school today because they’re afraid,” said Greg Casar, an Austin City Council member. “I talked to a constituent, a single mother, who had her door knocked on this morning by ICE.” 
 
 Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) said he confirmed with ICE’s San Antonio office that the agency “has launched a targeted operation in South and Central Texas as part of Operation Cross Check.” 
 
 “I am asking ICE to clarify whether these individuals are in fact dangerous, violent threats to our communities, and not people who are here peacefully raising families and contributing to our state,” Castro said in a statement Friday night. 
 
 Hiba Ghalib, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta, said the ICE detentions were causing “mass confusion” in the immigrant community. She said she had heard reports of ICE agents going door-to-door in one largely Hispanic neighborhood, asking people to present their papers. 
 
 “People are panicking,” Ghalib said. “People are really, really scared.” 
 
 Immigration officials acknowledged that as a result of Trump’s executive order, authorities had cast a wider net than they would have last year. 
 
 The Trump administration is facing several legal challenges to his executive orders on immigration. On Thursday, the administration lost a court battle over a separate executive order to temporarily ban entry into the United States by citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries, as well as by refugees. The administration said Friday that it is considering raising the case to the Supreme Court. 
 
 [Federal appeals court rules 3 to 0 against Trump on travel ban] 
 
 Some activists in Austin and Los Angeles suggested that the raids might be retaliation for those cities’ “sanctuary city” policies. A government aide familiar with the raids said it is possible that the predominantly daytime operations — a departure from the Obama administration’s night raids — meant to “send a message to the community that the Trump deportation force is in effect.” 
 
 Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, an immigrant advocacy group, said that the wave of detentions harks back to the George W. Bush administration, when workplace raids to sweep up all undocumented workers were common. 
 
 The Obama administration conducted a spate of raids and also pursued a more aggressive deportation policy than any previous president, sending more than 400,000 people back to their birth countries at the height of his deportations in 2012. The public outcry over the lengthy detentions and deportations of women, children and people with minor offenses led President Obama in his second term to prioritize convicted criminals for deportation. 
 
 A DHS official confirmed that while immigration agents were targeting criminals, given the broader range defined by Trump’s executive order, they also were sweeping up noncriminals in the vicinity who were found to be lacking documentation. It was unclear how many of the people detained would have been excluded under Obama’s policy. 
 
 Federal immigration officials, as well as activists, said that the majority of those detained were adult men, and that no children were taken into custody. 
 
 “Big cities tend to have a lot of illegal immigrants,” said one immigration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly because of the sensitive nature of the operation. “They’re going to a target-rich environment.” 
 
 Immigrant rights groups said that they were planning protests in response to the raids, including one Friday evening in Federal Plaza in New York City and a vigil in Los Angeles. 
 
 “We cannot understate the level of panic and terror that is running through many immigrant communities,” said Walter Barrientos of Make the Road New York in New York City, who spoke on a conference call with immigration advocates. 
 
 “We’re trying to make sure that families who have been impacted are getting legal services as quickly as possible. We’re trying to do some legal triage,” said Bob Libal, the executive director of Grassroots Leadership, which provides assistance and advocacy work to immigrants in Austin. “It’s chaotic,” he said. The organization’s hotline, he said, had been overwhelmed with calls. 
 
 Jeanette Vizguerra, 35, a Mexican house cleaner whose permit to stay in the country expired this week, said Friday during the conference call that she was newly apprehensive about her scheduled meeting with ICE next week. 
 
 Fearing deportation, Vizguerra, a Denver mother of four — including three who are U.S. citizens — said through an interpreter that she had called on activists and supporters to accompany her to the meeting. 
 
 “I know I need to mobilize my community, but I know my freedom is at risk here,” Vizguerra said. 
 
 Janell Ross in Los Angeles and Camille Pendley in Atlanta contributed to this report. ||||| Hispanic organizers are struggling to tamp down panic in their communities as federal authorities begin to implement President Trump's executive orders on immigration. 
 
 One of the first cases to receive national attention, the deportation of Arizona resident Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, has put undocumented and mixed status communities on edge. 
 
 "It's fair to say we’re all extremely troubled by the deportation action we saw take place yesterday in Arizona," said Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza. 
 
 "The first deportation [after] his executive order is of a working mom with two U.S. kids," she added. 
 
 On the campaign trail, Trump initially promised to enact a deportation force to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants, starting with dangerous criminals. 
 
 “They’re going to be out of here so fast, your head will spin,” Trump told Fox News in August. “As far as the rest, we’re going to go through the process, like they are now — perhaps with a lot more energy.” 
 
 Trump softened his tone somewhat over the campaign, saying at the final presidential debate in October that he would prioritize the removal of "bad hombres." 
 
 And as president-elect, Trump said his government would seek out "three or four million" dangerous criminals immigrants for deportation. 
 
 Many Hispanic advocates feel that the Garcia de Rayos case shows the Trump administration will aggressively pursue all undocumented immigrants. 
 
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 "This reaffirms that when the Trump administration said they would go after criminals, they really meant everybody," Murguia said. 
 
 The perception that Trump is shifting back to his early campaign proposals has shaken many Hispanics, including many who are legally in the country. 
 
 "The uncertainty and the confusion is prevalent with undocumented, legal residents and also citizens," said Telemundo anchorman José Diaz-Balart. "There are millions of mixed status families in the United States of America." 
 
 And community organizers admit they have few tools to quell the trepidation. 
 
 NCLR is one of many organizations that has set up a legal defense structure and started programs to inform immigrants of their rights, but under current law, an undocumented immigrant who comes in contact with federal enforcement officers has relatively few options. 
 
 "We want people to stay calm and we want to give them assurances but we can’t give them assurances," Murguía said. 
 
 Community organizations and media are focusing on keeping people informed of their options and the government's ability to persecute undocumented immigrants. 
 
 "What we are asking of the community is to get more plugged into community organizations," said Erika Andiola, political director of Our Revolution, a political action group spun off Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersTentative deal reached to give Disney World workers an hour Sanders praises Dem move to limit role of superdelegates in picking nominee Democrats move to limit role of superdelegates in presidential nominations MORE's (I-Vt.) presidential campaign. 
 
 "[We're] providing know-your-rights training, things you can do to protect yourself if you have a house raid or work raid," Andiola said. 
 
 Diaz-Balart, the anchor for Noticieros Telemundo, the network's nightly news program, is hosting a town hall event Sunday for his viewers to better understand the administration's immigration actions. 
 
 "[Immigrants are] now asking, 'how is this going to have an impact on me?'" said Diaz-Balart. 
 
 "It’s a town hall that is going to be dealing with the questions that we hear over and over and over again from the people that we serve," he said. "It’s not about telling people what they want to hear, it’s about making sure the people are informed about things." 
 
 Through his executive orders, Trump went after so-called "sanctuary cities" that restrict the degree to which their law enforcement agents collaborate with federal immigration enforcement. He has also redefined who could be labeled a "criminal alien." 
 
 That redefinition greatly expanded the number of undocumented immigrants liable to be targeted for removal, beyond the "three or four million" that Trump had mentioned. 
 
 José Magaña-Salgado, an attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, cited a study that said as many as 8 million people could now be targeted for deportation. 
 
 Under Trump's order, the definition of criminality was expanded to include misdemeanors like illicitly crossing the border. 
 
 It also expanded the definitions for immigrants to be considered priorities for deportation. Foreigners who have "committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense" are priorities, even before conviction. It also includes those who have committed "fraud or willful misrepresentation in connection with any official matter or application before a governmental agency," a category that includes using fake Social Security numbers to work. 
 
 While Trump campaigned on the prospect of removing dangerous criminals, Magaña-Salgado said the very structure of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would provide an incentive for indiscriminate enforcement. 
 
 "The general philosophy of ICE agents and CBP agents, they view their job as expelling as many people from the country as possible," said Magaña-Salgado. 
 
 "It benefits them to have high deportation numbers because they can justify their budget, they can justify their mission," he added. 
 
 And cases like Garcia de Rayos provide an easy target for federal agents. 
 
 Garcia de Rayos was apprehended during a yearly inspection at her local ICE headquarters, in which she voluntarily presented herself keeping with orders given to her when she was originally apprehended. 
 
 As a low-risk offender — Garcia de Rayos was convicted of using a fake Social Security Number to work — she was not on the Obama administration's deportation priority list despite have been slated for deportation by an immigration judge. 
 
 Beyond the detention of Garcia de Rayos, ICE conducted large raids this week on homes and workplaces that further alarmed Hispanic communities. 
 
 Karen Tumlin, legal director of the National Immigration Law Center, said agents denied access to immigration lawyers after one such raid in Los Angeles that rounded up about 100 people. 
 
 "Immigration attorneys flocked to the scene," Tumlin said. "They were shut out." 
 
 "[It's] absolutely unacceptable and potentially unlawful," she added. 
 
 Similar cases to Garcia de Rayos could also attract the attention of federal enforcement officers because of the shortage of immigration judges to prosecute cases. People who have already been slated for deportation by a judge can be removed without further due process. 
 
 The lack of immigration judges is "certainly going to be a constraint," said Magaña-Salgado. 
 
 But agents can use expedited removal procedures, curbed under the Obama administration but not taken off the books, to get detainees to accept a quick deportation over a lengthy wait for an immigration judge, in many cases while incarcerated. 
 
 "They’re going to use that tool to take people out of the court system and due process," Magaña-Salgado said. 
 
 Activists warn that going after easy targets can damage communities in several ways. 
 
 People who would otherwise be economically active could go into hiding, trust in law enforcement agencies could be diminished, and dangerous criminals could more easily slip through the cracks as federal agents pursue non-dangerous undocumented immigrants. 
 
 "People want to comply with the enforcement agencies," Murguia said. "They’re supposed to report in with these check ins; if they see they’re going to put themselves at risk, it’s a very difficult situation." 
 
 "These are gut wrenching, heart-breaking stories," she added. "In a civilized society, we can’t find a better way to deal with these issues?" 
 
 The Telemundo town hall will air Sunday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. EST and will feature Alma Rosa Nieto, an immigration lawyer who will answer questions on specific cases. ||||| Immigration Raids Are Reported Around The Country 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption John Moore/Getty Images John Moore/Getty Images 
 
 Federal immigration authorities launched a new wave of raids and other actions in several states over the past five days aimed at sweeping up people who are in this country illegally. 
 
 It's not known how many people were rounded up across the country, but immigration advocates say they've received reports of raids in California, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, New York and Kansas. The ICE operations are the first to take place since President Trump issued his Jan. 26 executive order expanding the priorities for enforcement. 
 
 President Trump has promised to deport 2 to 3 million immigrants with criminal records, but immigration experts say that while the Department of Homeland Security estimates there are 1.9 million "removable criminal aliens" in the United States, only about 690,000 are in this country illegally and have been convicted of a felony or serious misdemeanor. 
 
 Preliminary reports from southern California give an indication of the scope of the ICE operations. An official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in southern California, David Marin, called the actions routine "surge operations" that target "priority cases," in other words, people in this country illegally who have criminal convictions. 
 
 "We made 161 arrests, and of those 161, 151 of those had prior criminal convictions. ... The majority of them were felons and those felons which had prior convictions included sex offenses, domestic violence, assault, robbery and weapons violations, just to name a few," said Marin in a press teleconference held late Friday. 
 
 Marin said that of the ten others, five had impending deportation orders or had been deported and had illegally returned to the United States. The remaining five had no criminal records, but were in this country without documents. 
 
 Immigrant advocates dispute officials' claims that the operations were routine. 
 
 "What they're trying to do is a really concerted effort to instill fear and terrorize our communities," said David Abud, an organizer with the National Day Labor Organizing Network based in Los Angeles told NPR. 
 
 "It's a way in which Trump and ICE are retaliating against sanctuary jurisdictions," he added. 
 
 As we reported in the Two-Way, the majority of people in this country illegally are concentrated in 20 metropolitan areas in the country. 
 
 The Washington Post quoted one immigration official who was not authorized to speak publicly because of the sensitive nature of the operation as saying, "Big cities tend to have a lot of illegal immigrants. They're going to a target-rich environment." 
 
 There were anecdotal reports of ICE staging traffic checkpoints and random sweeps of people suspected of being here illegally. ICE's Marin called those reports "dangerous and irresponsible." 
 
 Marin declined to discuss any connection between the raids and the president's recent executive order, except to say that the operations had been planned for weeks before that order was issued.
– "People are panicking." That's the message from one immigration lawyer after hundreds of undocumented immigrants were rounded up this week by ICE agents in raids in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and the Carolinas, the Washington Post reports. According to NPR, the raids were the first since President Trump signed a Jan. 26 executive order on undocumented immigrants. That order redefined "criminal alien," expanding the definition beyond the couple million "bad hombres" the president mentioned during the campaign to include undocumented immigrants who are only suspected of a crime or those who've committed low-level offenses, such as using a fake Social Security number to get a job, the Hill reports. All last week, homes and businesses were raided in broad daylight—a change in tactic from the Obama administration that one government aide says is possibly meant to "send a message" under Trump. Immigrant advocates are also reporting that ICE agents are stopping immigrants at random or going door to door in minority-heavy neighborhoods to ask for IDs, though ICE denies these tactics. There have also reportedly been major raids in Kansas, Texas, Florida, and Virginia. Many advocates see this week as punishment for sanctuary cities and an attempt to "instill fear" in immigrants. And while officials maintain they're targeting undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records, advocates say it doesn't help their case that the first deportation under Trump was a "working mom with two US kids."