The violent illegal immigrants swept up in huge raids across New York City starting Tuesday have long been on the radar — but were left free until President Trump reentered the White House and allowed the feds to “protect our cities,” a special agent leading the operation said Wednesday.
“These are targets that we have known of or have targeted in previous enforcement efforts, but have not had the opportunity and the backing to go out and hold them accountable,” Frank Tarentino, the special agent in charge of New York’s division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), told Fox News.
That changed just days after Trump took over from former President Joe Biden, whose immigration policies have widely been blasted for allowing millions to illegally stream into the country, including killers and gang bangers taking refuge in sanctuary cities.
“This is a renewed focus, a re-commitment to do more to protect our cities, to really go after the most violent, illegal, criminal drug traffickers and violent criminals that have violated our immigration laws,” Tarentino said of the busts Tuesday of at least 30 across the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens.
“What you saw is the recommitment of the federal law enforcement community to really go back and take our cities back, to keep the cities safe, to keep our Americans healthy, and to give them that confidence that the law enforcement community is there to protect them,” he said.
DEA agents were joined by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, DHS agents, the Secret Service, US Marshals and the NYPD Special Operations unit in the sweeping busts — a move to regain control of American cities, Tarentino said.
The busts targeted migrants with warrants against them for terrifying crimes like burglary, menacing, kidnapping, extortion and various violent acts — and also saw the capture of the suspected Tren de Aragua gang leader.
The DEA alone busted five “career criminals,’’ federal sources told The Post on Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear how many arrests were made in New York City and across the country on Tuesday. On Monday, ICE said it made 1,179 arrests and lodged 853 detainers.
