NYC Is The Capital Of Trump's Immigration Crackdown, Report Shows

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has hit New York City especially hard — and it hasn't spared people who haven't been convicted of a crime, a new report shows.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the city deported 2,593 people in the 2018 fiscal year, a 150 percent increase from the last year under President Barack Obama, according to the report City Comptroller Scott Stringer released Thursday.

And the number of deported immigrants without criminal convictions more than tripled in that time from 313 to 1,144, the report found. That 265.5 percent increase is the largest of any ICE office in the nation, the report says.

The staggering statistics show New York City is no longer the "sanctuary" for immigrants that it has claimed to be, Stringer said. He called on city and state lawmakers to bolster support for immigrants.

"New York City is an immigration town, but this new data shows that New York City is becoming the capital city for ICE aggression," Stringer, a Democrat, said at a Thursday news conference in Foley Square.

"We need to get ICE the hell out of this city," he added.

As Stringer's report notes, the Trump administration greatly broadened the pool of immigrants it targets for deportation early in the president's term. Anyone who is violating immigration laws can be arrested and removed, as ICE no longer exempts certain immigrants from enforcement, an ICE spokeswoman said.

A spike in arrests has ensued. ICE officers in the city snapped up 3,476 people in the 2018 fiscal year, up 88.2 percent from the 2016 fiscal year, reversing "a precipitous decline" toward the end of the Obama administration, Stringer's report says.

The comptroller's report, based on federal data also paints a picture of whom the dragnet has ensnared.

Immigrants from three Asian countries accounted for nearly 40 percent of all the city's immigration court cases in the last three years, with 21 percent involving people from China, about 10 percent from India and roughly 8 percent from Bangladesh, the report shows.

People from the Latin American nations of Guatemala and Ecuador each account for about 7 percent of the cases, Stringer's office said.

Nearly half the court cases involve immigrants living in Queens, the city's most diverse borough, followed by Brooklyn with 29 percent, The Bronx with 14 percent, Manhattan with 6 percent and Staten Island with 3 percent, the report says.

The stark numbers undergird the need for the city and state to expand legal services and support for undocumented immigrants facing deportation, city and state lawmakers said.

Stringer called for the city to stop excluding certain people with criminal convictions from its program offering free lawyers to immigrants. And the state should bar ICE officers from its courthouses, Stringer said, a cause many activists and officials have rallied behind for months.

"The immigration court system is very complicated and without a lawyer, you’re not truly getting your rights protected," said state Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (D-Queens), who was once undocumented herself.

ICE spokeswoman Rachael Yong Yow declined to comment on Stringer's report or his statements. But she said the agency's New York officers "perform their lawful duties of enforcing the immigration laws of this nation with integrity and pride."

"These men and women will continue to enforce the laws set forth by Congress as part of their civic duty, despite any criticism or political rhetoric," Yong Yow said in an email. "Further, those who choose to stay in the United States illegally are breaking the laws of this nation."

A passerby who interrupted Stringer's press conference seemed to side with ICE:"Get rid of the illegals!" he shouted. The comptroller told the crowd to "ignore the uninformed idiot in the back."