Planned ICE Sweep Turns Into Coffee and Doughnuts

A federal plan to detain at least 2,000 immigrants in a nationwide sweep Sunday has devolved into a handful of low-key raids with few if any arrests, the New York Times reports. The plan for ICE agents to dramatically round up immigrants who have removal orders—which was highly publicized and hotly debated—changed after media reports alerted immigrants about what was coming, Homeland Security officials say. So the sweep was replaced by isolated raids in Chicago, New York, Florida, and perhaps elsewhere. A Chicago mother and her daughters were arrested and let go under supervision, a source says, while three ICE raids in New York resulted in little or nothing and South Florida remained quiet, the Miami Herald reports.

"We don’t know if they're doing it on purpose—saying these cities are the targets so then smaller places are targeted," a Miami-based advocate tells the LA Times. So-called "ICE chasers" in the Atlanta suburbs, who help immigrants once they're arrested, eventually gave up Sunday and went back to the office of an advocacy group for doughnuts and coffee. The leader of a similar response team in Los Angeles saw no arrests but said time was well-spent informing undocumented workers about what to expect from ICE raids. Meanwhile, many immigrants are likely hiding indoors (ICE agents aren't allowed to break in) or at far-off locations until the heat dies down. Yet immigration authorities say they still plan to conduct raids in 10 or more cities throughout the week. (More illegal immigration stories.)