ICE arrested nearly 500 people during 10 coast-to-coast raids in so-called "sanctuary cities," immigration officials announced on Thursday.
The apprehensions were similar to other past roundups by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but this time focused on placed Justice Department officials charged were soft on illegal immigration, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Times said 167 arrests were made in and around Los Angeles, while 107 more arrests were made in Philadelphia, an ICE statement said.
Dubbed "Operation Safe City," the ICE raids also resulted in arrests in Baltimore (28); Cook County, Illinois (30); Denver (63); New York (45); Portland, Oregon (33); Santa Clara County, California (27); Washington, D.C. (14), and the state of Massachusetts (50).
"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," ICE acting director Tom Homan said. "As a result, ICE is forced to dedicate more resources to conduct at-large arrests in these communities."
"ICE's goal is to build cooperative, respectful relationships with our law enforcement partners to help prevent dangerous criminal aliens from being released back onto the streets," Homan said. "Non-cooperation policies severely undermine that effort at the expense of public safety."
The Times noted the term "sanctuary city" has been around since the 1980s when Berkeley, California and a handful of other municipalities declared themselves open to accepting to Central America immigrants.
While there is no clear definition of a sanctuary city, the term generally means cities that have adopted the designation to offer political support or practical protections to people who are in the country illegally.
Earlier this month, NBC News reported that plans for a massive ICE raid targeting 8,400 undocumented immigrants had been canceled because of Hurricane Harvey hitting Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida.
NBC News said an internal Department of Homeland Security document described the canceled operation as "the largest operation of its kind in the history of ICE." It was not clear in media reports if Thursday's announced arrests and the NBC News-reported operations were connected.
Talia Inlender, a senior staff attorney at Public Counsel, which advocates for immigrants, told the Times she believed the enforcement was politically motivated.
"It's clearly a political move that is not actually geared toward public safety," Inlender told the Times.
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