Federal immigration agents have begun rounding up illegal immigrants in the Denver area, following a Trump administration campaign promise to deport migrants who have broken the law, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
The arrests began Monday, as President Donald Trump took the oath of office, and have spread across the state.
“ICE agents are doing their job – the job they should have been doing for the past four years,” former Colorado Immigration Enforcement Director John Fabbricatore told DailyMail.com.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck situation, using every tool at their disposal.”
Several dozen migrants have been arrested in Rocky Mountain State by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) because they had pending criminal cases, a law enforcement source estimates.
'These boxes were already in the hopper. They've been keeping an eye on them, they've got good notes, and they're only addressing the things they weren't allowed to do before.”
The former ICE director explained that the Biden administration had handcuffed agents to make these types of arrests.
'Priorities were set that limited you, as if you couldn't pursue drunk driving. You couldn't go after a basic drug possession. The Biden administration has set these priorities that kept you from going after criminals,” he shared.
ICE agents began making arrests in Colorado on January 20
Non-criminal migrants who have received a final order from a judge to leave the country are also being targeted.
“Potentially that person may not be a criminal, but he still went through the immigration process, saw an immigration judge and refused to leave,” Fabbricatore said.
Law enforcement officials warned that these are not raids, meaning they will not target individuals who may be in the U.S. illegally.
Instead, they call this “targeted enforcement,” meaning officers have already done their homework on who these people are and why they are being detained.
They also explained that similar arrests are happening across the country, but they don't resemble the raids everyone expected.
Even though ICE is currently only going after people with pending cases, it is possible that other migrants may end up in the dragnet.
“Any collateral they come across while targeting a criminal alien is now on the table,” Fabbricatore admitted.
“If they go into an apartment looking for a wanted gang member, and he has two friends there and they're both illegal, maybe they can catch them too.”
ICE is going after criminal migrants and those who skipped a judge's deportation order, law enforcement sources tell DailyMail.com
Pictured above: the ICE office in Aurora, Colorado
Former ICE Field Office Director John Fabbricatore, testifies before a House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement hearing on restoring immigration enforcement in America, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday
President Trump traveled to the Denver suburb of Aurora in October to launch “Operation Aurora” – which he billed as the largest deportation plan in the nation's history.
Then-presidential candidate Trump chose Aurora because it has become a stronghold for the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, known to police as TdA.
After crossing the southern border posing as asylum seekers, gang members infiltrated at least three apartment complexes in the area.
TdA thugs took over vacant apartments to operate drug and prostitution dens, pimping migrant women and children.
Other migrants living in these properties were forced to pay the gangster's 'rent' or face violence.
In August, a video of armed gang members storming a unit on the outskirts of Lowry emerged and made national headlines.
