Immigration

Homeless Illegal Migrant Ends Up Making ICE’s Job Way Easier 

(Flickr/Photo by Shane T. McCoy / US Marshals)

A homeless illegal migrant entered an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building Thursday and requested he be taken into custody.

The 23-year-old Venezuelan national, whom ICE did not identify, walked into the lobby of the agency’s Detroit field office and asked to be arrested, or else he would go on to commit crimes, according to the agency. The occurrence marked a far cry from the thousands of illegal migrants arrested by deportation officers out in the community since President Donald Trump returned to the White House. 

“We’re grateful that this individual self-reported and turned himself over to ICE before going out and threatening public safety,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Detroit Field Office Director Robert Lynch stated.

The agency confirmed the Venezuelan national will remain in ICE custody pending his immigration proceedings.

Should an immigration judge order him removed, the Venezuelan man is much more likely to be returned to his home country now that the Trump administration has secured an agreement with President Nicholas Maduro’s government to accept deportation flights again.

The first two deportation flights landed in the capital city of Caracas on Monday, and reportedly carried members of the ruthless Tren de Aragua crime syndicate. The flights were made possible after Trump envoy Richard Grenell visited with Maduro in January and secured the release of six Americans who had been detained by the socialist government.

ICE agents conducted an immigration raid Wednesday in the Denver metro area, where Tren De Aragua gangbangers had reportedly taken over entire apartment complexes and wreaked havoc on the local community. However, while the sweeping raid was anticipated to capture up to 100 criminal illegal migrants and others living unlawfully in the country, agents fell far short of their expectations, with border czar Tom Homan casting blame on leaks to the media.

Since returning to office, Trump has overseen a dramatic uptick in ICE arrests across the country, as part of his pledge to conduct a hardline immigration enforcement policy following the border crisis that was sparked under the Biden administration. The president has issued a slate of executive orders that have opened up more resources for this arrest and deportation operation, and the Department of Homeland Security has empowered other federal agents with more authority to make immigration arrests.

The administration has already apprehended several thousand illegal migrants, according to daily updates from ICE. Major metropolitan areas like Chicago, Denver, New York City, Baltimore and elsewhere have been targeted by deportation officers — with many of these localities being sanctuary cities that refuse to work with federal immigration authorities.

Roughly 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country under Maduro, a leftist authoritarian leader who has overseen rampant inflation, economic turmoil and political repression. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals have since trekked to the U.S., largely by unlawfully crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, Customs and Border Protection data show.

The Trump administration — in addition to beefing up the U.S.-Mexico border security apparatus — declared a phaseout of parole programs that allowed migrants to enter and work in the U.S. en masse under the Biden White House. Republicans have long criticized parole initiatives such as the CHNV program for being ridden with fraud and allowing hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela into the country.

The Venezuelan migrant who voluntarily surrendered at ICE’s Detroit office may be representative of illegal migrant sentiment under the Trump era. Many migrants south of the border expressed hopelessness at the likelihood of crossing into the U.S. unlawfully after Trump emerged victorious in the November presidential elections.