FIRST ON FOX: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the first days of the Trump administration, has made for that 460 arrests of illegal immigrants, include those with criminal histories that include sexual assault, domestic violence and drugs and weapons crimes.

Information obtained by Fox News Digital, shows that between midnight Jan. 21 and 9am Jan 22, a 33-hour period, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrests over 460 aliens that include criminal histories of sexual assault, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, drugs and weapons offenses, resisting arrest and domestic violence.

Agents arrested nationals from a slew of countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal and Venezuela.

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Arrests took place across the U.S. including Illinois, Utah, California, Minnesota, New York, Florida and Maryland. 

Meanwhile, ICE issued more than 420 detainers – requests ICE be notified when a national is released from custody. The nationals were arrested for crimes including homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, battery and robbery.

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Arrests include:

– A Mexican national, Jesus Perez, arrested in Salt Lake City, charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a child.

On January 22, 2025, ICE-ERO Chicago arrested Adan Pablo-Ramirez, an inadmissible Mexican national with convictions for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement )

– A Honduran national, Franklin Osorto-Cruz, convicted of driving while intoxicated. He was arrested in New York.

– A Jamaican national, Kamaro Denver Haye, arrested for “promote a sexual performance by a child less than 17 years of age and possessing sexual performance by child less than 16 years of age: possess/access to view.”

– A Mexican national, Jesus Baltazar Mendoza, convicted of 2nd degree assault of a child. He was arrested in St. Paul.

– Colombian national Andres Orjuela Parra, who was arrested in San Francisco. He has a conviction of sexual penetration with a foreign object on an unaware victim.

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– Six illegal immigrants in Miami from Guatemala, with criminal histories including battery, child abuse, fraud, resisting arrest, DWI, trespassing and vandalism.

Meanwhile, Fox News’ Bill Melugin was on the ground in Boston, where agents arrested multiple MS-13 gang members, Interpol Red Notices, and murder & rape suspects.

The arrests come as the Trump administration is moving rapidly to fulfill its promise to launch a historic mass deportation operation, which it has said will focus primarily – but not exclusively – on public safety threats.

On January 22, 2025, ICE-ERO New York City arrested Jose Roberto Rodriguez-Urbina, a 22-year-old citizen of El Salvador. Rodriguez is an alleged MS13 gang member and is also the subject of an Interpol Red Notice from El Salvador for the offense of Extortion. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement )

This week the administration has made a slew of moves to make it happen, including a barrage of executive orders by President Trump and subsequent moves by his cabinet agencies.

Fox News reported Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security has removed limits from powers of expedited removal, a day after it rescinded a Biden-era memo restricting where ICE can conduct enforcement operations.

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ICE-ERO San Francisco arrested Daniel Andres Orjuela Parra (right), a citizen of Colombia unlawfully present in the United States. Orjuela has been convicted of sexual penetration with a foreign object on an unaware victim and sentenced to 3 years in prison. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement )

“Teams are out there as of today,” Homan said on “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday. “We gave them direction to prioritize public safety threats that we’re looking for. We’ve been working up the target list.”

“Right out of the gate it’s public safety threats, those who are in the country illegally that have been convicted, arrested for serious crime,” he said. “But let me be clear. There’s not only public safety threats that will be arrested, because in sanctuary cities, we’re not allowed to get that public safety threat in the jail, which means we got to go to the neighborhood and find him.”

Fox News’ Sophia Compton contributed to this report. 

WASHINGTON —  As part of President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, the Department of Justice will be empowered to investigate and even criminally prosecute government officials who do not comply with restrictive orders on immigration.

The move, outlined in an internal memo reported by multiple news outlets Wednesday, effectively puts a target on the backs of many state and local California officials, who have vociferously defended measures designed to make it possible for undocumented immigrants to work and get an education in the state.

The memo from acting U.S. Deputy Atty. Gen. Emil Bove instructs state and local officials to comply with federal immigration directives and echoes lines Trump hammered on the campaign trail about the threat of undocumented immigrants in the country — such as gangs, drugs and crime. Studies have found that immigrants commit crimes at far lower rates than American citizens.

“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands,” the memo reads, adding that the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Department of Justice will investigate wrongdoers. The statement also mentions a newly established “Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group” to challenge state and local sanctuary cities laws.

As news of the internal memo spread Wednesday, agencies and officials began to assess how they would respond to its threat of investigations and possible prosecution.

“This is a scare tactic, plain and simple. The president is attempting to intimidate and bully state and local law enforcement into carrying out his mass deportation agenda for him,” said California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta in a statement. “My team is reviewing the U.S. Department of Justice’s memo, and we’ll be prepared to take legal action if the Trump Administration’s vague threats turn to illegal action.”

Bonta pointed to California’s sanctuary law — approved in 2017 and known as Senate Bill 54 — which bars local law enforcement agencies from using public money to play a direct role in immigration enforcement and prohibits police from transferring people to immigration authorities except in certain cases, such as when people have been convicted of certain violent felonies and misdemeanors.

In 2019, a federal court rejected a lawsuit to stop SB54 from the previous Trump administration, ruling that the state laws could continue to be enforced. The city of Huntington Beach sued California this month over the constitutionality of the law.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office declined to comment.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who represents a district in the San Fernando Valley that includes many immigrant groups, hadn’t read the memo but said that L.A.’s “sanctuary city” policy doesn’t stop the federal government from deporting people.

“The question is whether we use our federal resources as a city to aid and abet that deportation,” Blumenfield said. “Legally, I think that they’re not able to force us to do that.

“You always have to be concerned; Trump doesn’t play by the rules,” he added.

When asked about Trump’s order, Tony Thurmond, the state superintendent of public instruction, said “I don’t feel threatened.” “I’m happy to talk to the president right now,” said Thurmond, who has taken a stand against helping ICE. “People don’t need to get threats.”

Since taking office Monday, Trump has signed a slew of executive orders aimed at reining in illegal immigration — among them, cutting off federal funding for sanctuary cities, ending birthright citizenship for children of parents in the country illegally and shutting down an app used by asylum seekers to apply for entry into the United States.

At the UC Board of Regents meeting Wednesday in San Francisco, leaders acknowledged the “fear and uncertainty” of undocumented students — who are estimated to number 86,800 in California, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal.

“We don’t know yet all that lies ahead, but we remain steadfast in our values, our mission and our commitment to caring for and supporting our entire UC community,” President Michael V. Drake said.

Stephen Miller, the president’s deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor, foreshadowed the memo when his nonprofit, America First Legal, sent letters to 249 elected and law enforcement officials across the country last month, warning of the consequences for interfering with or impeding illegal immigration enforcement.

The letters state that it is a crime to conceal, harbor or shield people in the country illegally. Among the California officials to receive the letters were Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell and Bonta.

“As Attorney General, on December 4, 2024, you stated that the State of California will not enforce federal immigration laws, encouraging defiance by all California jurisdictions,” the letter to Bonta reads, concluding, “The fact of the matter is that you and the other officials who support or enforce sanctuary laws, policies, and regulations have a very personal stake in the matter — you each could face criminal prosecution and civil liability for your illegal acts.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it would discuss the Trump directive “with our public safety partners, County Counsel, and other key stakeholders.”

“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department complies with state law (SB54) and does not honor ICE requests/detainers or transfer individuals into the custody of ICE, unless there is a federal judicial warrant signed by a judge,” said a department statement Wednesday.

Last year, Sheriff Robert Luna said in a television interview that he did not anticipate changing the department’s practices after Trump took office, stressing that immigration enforcement isn’t the job of sheriff’s deputies.

“There’s a lot of rhetoric out there,” he told ABC7. “I don’t want people to be afraid to call the Sheriff’s Department if they need something. If they’re a witness to a crime, if they’re a victim to a crime, they need to call us. We don’t and will not start asking people about their immigration status.”

But, he added, “We are not going to help in any sweeps or deportation of just normal working folk that are here.”

The Sheriff’s Department has a complicated and inconsistent track record on interacting with federal immigration officials. Two sheriffs ago, under the tenure of Jim McDonnell — now police chief — the department allowed ICE agents to use an office inside the downtown Inmate Reception Center. From there, immigration officials could freely approach and interview inmates at any time, the department previously told The Times.

When Alex Villanueva took office in 2018, he kicked ICE out of the jails and limited the criteria that allow inmates to be transferred to federal custody for detention or deportation. The latest version of the Sheriff’s Department policy manual posted online notes that ICE agents are not allowed in any jails, station jails or court lockups for the purposes of immigration enforcement.

Art Acevedo — a former police chief in Houston and Miami, and a candidate at one time to head up the L.A. department — said that local agencies should be able to focus on combating violent and property crime, especially as retaining law enforcement officers has become a challenge for many agencies. He stressed that in some situations, local police and deputies should work with federal partners to get violent criminals off the streets. But he questioned how much effect the new directive would have.

“It’s not really focusing on public policy — it’s more about focusing on good political theater,” he told The Times on Wednesday. “We’ll see how much of it is rhetoric, and how much of it is actual action taken against state and local officials. Time will tell.”

Pinho reported from Washington, with Blakinger and Vives reporting from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Dakota Smith, Teresa Watanabe, Taryn Luna and Howard Blume contributed to this report.