The mass detainment and arrests of immigrants have begun in New York City, as per President Donald Trump’s executive order. In the past, Immigration Customs and Enforcement officers have indeed gone after undocumented immigrants with criminal records, but this crackdown was on a drastically different scale.

ICE agents worked with officers from other federal agencies to arrest criminal immigrants, choosing them from a target list created by the Department of Homeland Security. The agents prioritized people who were charged with violent crimes, thought to be connected to gangs or  drug trafficking and lastly, on a tiered list of “less serious offenders.”

Across the country, ICE is detaining undocumented immigrants. According to a senior Trump administration official, 48% of the arrests made on Jan. 26 are nonviolent offenders or people who have not committed any criminal offense other than crossing the border illegally. Almost half had no criminal record.

During one of the raids in the Bronx, a neighbor of someone who was arrested shared her concerns in an interview with CNN.

“Everybody in the building is just asking who else are they coming for?” she said. “How are they picking the people? Is it just people who have been in the system, who have been arrested? A lot of people don’t have their papers here and there is a lot of fear.”

A concerning aspect of these raids is the lack of information. Details such as how the raids are conducted and who they are targeting should be shared with the public. With the usage of vague
language like ‘less serious offenders,’ many people from these communities are worried for their security.

When both the public and even immigration experts have no idea who ICE is targeting, it sets an alarming precedent for the Trump administration to carry out its agenda in secrecy, displaying a lack of transparency and honesty.

John Sandweg, a former ICE director under former President Barack Obama, puts it best: “you’re going to exhaust these targets pretty quickly … that is a very important question. What population are they going to try to focus on next?”

People who are charged with terrible crimes should be arrested and brought to trial. That is undoubtedly the right move.

However, many of these immigrants who are arrested don’t fit under that category, yet are being treated like they are.

Trump has already passed several other executive orders, including one that would end birthright citizenship for babies born in America on a prospective basis. This order may set a standard
that targets all immigrants — even legal ones.

This series of events represents a deterioration of these individuals’ rights. Knowing Trump’s stance on immigration, it almost certainly won’t stop at these raids.