ICE’s new targets post-Minnesota retreat

Following a slew of backlash over the shooting deaths of two American citizens, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ended its immigration surge in Minnesota. This may cause the temperature in Minneapolis to cool, but the agency is looking ahead toward new cities. This is causing some concern, particularly among Democratic officials, that more social unrest could occur.

Other cities in ICE’s sights

Several cities and states are reportedly on ICE’s list to send officers into. One of the most notable is actually a Republican-led state: The Trump administration is “eyeing Ohio for immigration enforcement operations” that are “expected to target Haitian immigrants,” said MS Now. This is largely due to the temporary protected status (TPS) for these Haitians having expired earlier this month.

If this does happen, Springfield, Ohio, would likely be one of the most targeted cities. Springfield has an estimated Haitian population of 12,000 to 15,000 and was the target of a conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs. Both President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance spread this theory, which was later proven to be false. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials claim they do “not have concrete plans to launch immigration enforcement efforts in Springfield but plan to deport Haitian immigrants,” said WCMH-TV Columbus.

Prominent Democratic-led areas are also likely to enter ICE’s crosshairs. In a public town hall for the San Francisco Bay Area, officials “asked the question: Could Northern California be the next target for a heavy-handed federal immigration enforcement crackdown?” said Bay City News. This concern comes following claims that ICE would conduct immigration operations at Super Bowl LX, which took place in Santa Clara (ICE agents did not end up patrolling the game, according to the NFL).

As a result, places in California such as Oakland’s Alameda County are “hoping to create a response plan to ICE immigration enforcement activities in the county,” said KGO-TV San Francisco. This includes putting forth policy proposals to “ensure there is a countywide response plan to ICE activity,” as well as a plan to “create ICE-free zones throughout the county.”

‘The biggest driver’

There are also questions as to how ICE determines which cities to target. While the Trump administration has largely been quiet on this, former ICE officials have been more vocal. When it comes to choosing communities for immigration enforcement, the “biggest driver would be immigrant population, how significant a population is there in that particular community,” John Sandweg, who served as director of ICE from 2013 to 2014, said to Fox News. The “second thing is, is there something like a sanctuary policy that would increase the number of at-large targets, meaning people who ICE wants to take into custody who are not currently in a prison or jail.” Those are the “traditional factors that ICE would rely on in making determinations about where to do at-large surges.”

And despite DHS potentially losing funding due to a partial government shutdown, these targeted enforcement efforts may not end soon. ICE “does not have the manpower” to target every city in the U.S., Marquette University law Jacob Hamburger told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. But the “point of a lot of these operations is to get everybody thinking, ‘What if we’re next?’”