 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Marin said that of the ten others, five had impending deportation orders or had been deported and had illegally returned to the United States. Immigration advocates also reported roadway checkpoints, where ICE appeared to be targeting immigrants for random ID checks, in North Carolina and in Austin. [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. She said she had heard reports of ICE agents going door-to-door in one largely Hispanic neighborhood, asking people to present their papers. Hispanic organizers are struggling to tamp down panic in their communities as federal authorities begin to implement President Trump's executive orders on immigration. “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. "It’s not about telling people what they want to hear, it’s about making sure the people are informed about things."
– "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."