Twenty-five members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were arrested by ICE on Monday, according to a senior administration official.
In total, there were 969 arrests on just that day, including a convicted member of MS-13 whom ICE arrested in Dallas.
“Border czar” Tom Homan has said it’s all part of the Trump administration’s effort to send a “clear” message.
“There’s consequences [for] entering the country illegally,” he told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday.
“If we don’t show there’s consequences, you’re never going to fix the border problem,” he added. “So, if you’re in a country illegally, you got a problem.”
While the Trump administration said it would focus on deporting immigrants without legal status who have committed violent offenses first, as raids and mass deportations have continued, administration officials have said those without criminal records have also been deported. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended what was happening at the second Trump administration’s first White House press briefing on Tuesday.
“Every day, Americans are safer because of the violent criminals that President Trump’s administration is removing from our communities,” Leavitt said, adding that Trump “is focused on launching the largest mass deportation operation in American history of illegal criminals.
“And you are an individual, a foreign national, who illegally enters the United States of America, you are, by definition, a criminal,” Leavitt said.
When asked during the briefing which immigrants the Trump administration considers to have a “criminal record,” Leavitt said, “All of them because they illegally broke our nation’s laws, and therefore they are criminals. As far as this administration goes. I know the last administration didn’t see it that way, so it’s a big culture shift in our nation to view someone who breaks our immigration laws as a criminal. But that’s exactly what they are.”
The arrests occurred as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined an immigration enforcement operation in New York City on Tuesday, in which she witnessed both criminal and civil enforcement operations. Of the operations Noem witnessed, a criminal case involved a member of Tren de Aragua, according to sources familiar with the actions in New York.
Noem, who was confirmed as secratary of the Department of Homeland Security over the weekend, has said the Trump administration will “empower our brave men and women in law enforcement to do their jobs and remove criminal aliens and illegal gangs from our country.”
ABC News’ Mary Bruce and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
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