Also a bunch of internal ICE emails really blows up that narrative, making it clear they’re just randomly arresting people (without the warrants they need), per policy:
One of the emails, written by Marcos Charles, the acting executive associate director of Ice’s enforcement and removal operations, instructs Ice officials to go after people they may coincidentally encounter.
“All collaterals encounters [sic] need to be interviewed and anyone that is found to be amenable to removal needs to be arrested,” Charles wrote, also saying: “We need to turn up the creative knob up to 11 and push the envelope.”
The email later added: “We complained for the last four years about not being allowed to do our job, and now the time has come for us to step up!”
Another email reviewed by the Guardian was sent on Saturday by a senior longtime Ice official, Francisco Madrigal.
“While the weekend is still young, please look at efforts to increase our arrests over these two days compared to our results from last weekend,” Madrigal wrote. “We know there are different dynamics to consider on Sats and Sundays, and many of you have been pushing what works and trying out new lines of effort as well.
“If you’d like to run something up or if we can help give a push somewhere, please reach out. If it involves handcuffs on wrists, it’s probably worth pursuing,” Madrigal added.
In 2022, a court settlement put in place some rules for Ice, requiring the agency to have warrants to justify an arrest. If officers did not have a warrant during a collateral arrest, Ice had to show probable cause to justify the arrest and detention. Notably, an officer had to document that a person was likely to escape before getting the additional warrant.
