Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said federal immigration authorities were arresting the “worst of the worst” in raids targeting criminal illegal immigrants in the first week of the Trump administration.
Noem, who was confirmed Saturday, joined an immigration enforcement raid in New York City Tuesday morning in which officers picked up an alleged ringleader of the violent Tren de Aragua gang.
“We are picking up the worst of the worst in this country that are making our streets so dangerous,” Noem told Sean Hannity on “Hannity.” “The community is safer now. That’s the reality of it.”
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Investigators said Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, 25, is the same man caught on camera in a video showing heavily armed men kicking down an apartment door at an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado.
He was hiding out in New York City, authorities said.
The targeted raid against criminal illegal immigrants was “very specific,” Noem said. In an effort to combat crime, sanctuary city laws should be lifted, so authorities can better target and prosecute illegal immigrants who commit crimes, she added.
“We need mayors and governors partnering with us, but we will do our job regardless of that,” she said. “We will continue to go forward and identify those folks and get them out.
“Talking about the difference in some of these sanctuary cities, how they’re just released as soon as they come into our custody, not necessarily our custody, but the local governments’.”
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She added that immigration agents were happy “they finally get to do their job” and “finally get to get these dirtbags out of our country.”
Noem said she plans to accompany authorities to see what authorities need to better perform their jobs.
Noem said three times the number of criminal illegal immigrants were being arrested than under the Biden administration, and she said there were fewer encounters at the southern border.
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“We’ve sent a message clearly to the world: ‘Don’t come here. If you’re an illegal and if you’re dangerous, we have a target on you, and you will not be welcome and we will remove you’,” said Noem.
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