ICE now going '100 miles per hour' under new administration, director says

WASHINGTON - The director of ICE’s Baltimore field office serving Maryland said when it comes to immigration enforcement, "the worst go first" but there is a new sense of mission.

"Under the new administration, we are going 100 miles per hour," director Matt Ellison said. "We are out to make the biggest difference to public safety we can possibly make. Anything about, ‘Oh, you can’t arrest this person, you can’t arrest this person.’ If you’re a criminal, we’re coming for you."

Ellison has been with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for 17 years, with two years spent at the Baltimore office. They’re still targeting the most dangerous criminals but now, Ellison said they have more support from the DOJ, FBI, DEA, and other agencies to arrest more criminals.

COLLATERAL ARRESTS

What we know:

People who are considered a threat to public safety and national security are still considered the top priority, Ellison said. That is no different from the past administration under former President Joe Biden but now, ICE agents are allowed to make "collateral arrests".

This means they are allowed to take immigrants who are living in the United States illegally into custody, even if they were not the initial targets of the search. Those kinds of arrests were previously banned.

"We’re looking for the gang members, sex offenders, but if you’re illegally here and you’re living with that sex offender, gang member, we’re going to take you too, if we come to that house," he said. "If you don’t want to come across ICE, I would say don’t let criminals live with you. That’s who we’re targeting first and foremost. It’s those national security threats and threats to public safety and if they’re next to that person, we’re going to start asking questions [02] at the end of the day, they broke the law being here."

COMMUNITY CONCERNS

What they're saying:

The Immigrant & Refugee Outreach Center has been serving immigrant and refugee families in the DMV since 2019. According to IROC, refugee families typically only receive 90-days of assistance from the government-appointed resettlement agencies and very limited financial assistance.

IROC was created to help address the gaps in the resettlement process, according to the organization. Bita Golshan Lotfi serves as a board member and said the organization serves about 1,500 people a year through their programs.

Most of their clients are documented through visas, but some are not.

"They’re concerned their visa’s will not be eligible for renewal, and then they will have to be deported back to their home countries," Golshan Lotfi said. "I think everybody is scared that they will not be allowed to renew their visas and be deported, or there will be immigration raids."

She added, many are fearful despite being in the country legally.

"A lot of families in these refugee housing complexes in the area, they’re scared. They come home from work, and they run inside their home and lock the doors," she said. "They’re scared to go to food banks. There’s a lot of local food

banks in the area. They’re afraid ICE is going to be there to check their documents. Even if they’re legal, they’re just don’t want to be put in that stressful situation."

FOX 5 asked whether people should be fearful of visas not being renewed.

"I’ve never seen that. In my 17 years, I haven’t seen someone who’s lawfully allowed to extend their visa not get approved. That’s citizen and immigration. Nothing to do with enforcement," Ellison said.

‘TARGETED ARRESTS, NOT RAIDS’

Dig deeper:

During our one-on-one with Ellison, he reiterated ICE does not perform raids. Agents carry out targeted arrests, nor do they scope out areas like schools and churches randomly.

However, Ellison said they have pulled back on policies related to "sensitive locations."

"The reason we pulled back is because we don’t want criminals going to those places to avoid arrests. We had that in past, where a gang member ran into a church to try and avoid us. That doesn’t make any sense for public safety. We’re going to go in there and we’re going to get that person," he said. "Second big thing, the sensitive location policy didn’t just restrict that space. It also was the surrounding so if you were a child molester that ICE was looking, the smartest

thing you could do was go live next to a school. That policy made it so it was more dangerous for the schools to have people like that living close to them."

DHS recently issued this directive "in or near protected areas."