A rally outside a federal court in Seattle during a hearing for a DACA recipient arrested by ICE.
A rally outside a federal court in Seattle during a hearing for a DACA recipient arrested by ICE. Karen Ducey/Getty Images

EDITOR'S NOTE: This post originally reported that ICE arrested 33 people in Seattle over a four-day operation. While ICE originally reported that it arrested 33 people in Seattle, that is untrue. It has since retracted that claim, saying the agency arrested 1 person in Seattle and 26 in Washington, KNKX reports.


An edited version of the original post is below.

U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 1 people in Seattle and 26 in Washington State as part of a four-day operation cracking down on sanctuary cities that shelter undocumented immigrants. The operation, titled "Safe City," netted 498 people across nationwide, ICE reports.

ICE said in a statement that the operation focused on "individuals who have violated U.S. immigration laws, prioritizing aliens with criminal convictions, pending criminal charges, known gang members and affiliates, immigration fugitives and those who re-entered the U.S. after deportation." Note the dehumanizing use of the word "alien."

Apart from Seattle, the raids also targeted Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, New York, Baltimore, D.C., Philadelphia and other places.

DACA recipients — those brought to the U.S. illegally as children — weren't targeted.

ICE is planning to focus on conducting more raids in sanctuary cities like Seattle, which refuse to go along with the Trump administration's unconstitutional order to dedicate police resources to helping ICE arrest undocumented immigrants. “Sanctuary jurisdictions that do not honor detainers or allow us access to jails and prisons are shielding criminal aliens from immigration enforcement and creating a magnet for illegal immigration,” said ICE Acting Director Tom Homan. “As a result, ICE is forced to dedicate more resources to conduct at-large arrests in these communities.”

While ICE triumphantly publicized a list of criminals it rounded up in the operation, immigrants are less likely commit crimes.

Naming the operation "Safe City" is an audacious move, as there's evidence ICE's tactics are actually a threat to public safety. These kinds of operations make people afraid to report crimes and testify in court, and if police departments work with ICE, it ruins whatever trust people have in the police. As The Guardian reported, reports of sexual assault from Latinos in Los Angeles have dropped by a quarter this year, and reports of domestic violence are also down, with people afraid to go to police. Women suffering domestic violence, will be less likely to seek protective orders, since they might be arrested in doing so. The same is true for children being sexually abused.