DHS admits targeting undocumented migrants regardless of criminal history

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is being more transparent about arresting undocumented migrants regardless of whether they had a criminal record.

United States Border Patrol Chief Jeffrey Dinise said only “more than 30” of the 360 undocumented migrants detained over the last week in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina had criminal records in a post on X.

The post comes as United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to claim the agency is going after the “worst of the worst” in various statements.

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“While Americans were enjoying their weekend and the media peddled falsehoods that DHS was not targeting the worst of the worst, ICE arrested sickos who sexually abused children, raped innocent women, and committed murder,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a press release. As we look ahead to Thanksgiving this week, Americans can be thankful our brave DHS law enforcement got these pedophiles, rapists, and murderers off American streets.”

Locally, WPTV has uncovered documents showing ICE placed immigration detainers and arrest warrants on various people, regardless of their criminal history. The federal government is using local state agencies to conduct enforcement as well through 287 (G) agreements. Those agreements, mandated by the state laws and Gov. Ron DeSantis control over state law enforcement agencies, authorize law enforcement to perform immigration enforcement when it’s not apart of their original authority.

WPTV obtained body camera footage from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officers expressing concerns about their preparedness to make immigration arrests. The video shows they detained five undocumented migrants during a routine fishing inspection. The migrants had violated fishing regulations.

WATCH: Officer says they've been instructed to check people who don't 'appear to be a citizen'

The footage also shows officers allowing two suspected undocumented migrants to leave without being detained: A 14-year-old boy and his father. The boy was found with the other five documents fishing off a bridge in Cedar Key, Florida. According to body camera footage, the officers didn’t detain the 14-year-old and the father, because ICE didn’t issue an immigration detainer and/or an arrest warrant. Agents instead pushed the two to check in at an ICE office to obtain documentation.

“They are aware the father and son that are also illegal. For whatever reason, they told us to not arrest these two and go ahead and release them,” the officer said on the body camera footage. ”But, they gotta find the nearest ICE center and go to approach them and get documented. Start getting documented by immigration.”

According to the footage, the boy’s father wasn’t fishing off the bridge with the other five undocumented migrants. Instead, the footage shows FWC officers used a bilingual bystander to call the boy’s father to pick-up his son. FWC officers, according to the footage, checked the bystander's immigration status as well. He was an American citizen with a Florida driver’s license.