San Antonio ICE office arrested 275 immigrants during enforcement sweep

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s San Antonio field office arrested 275 undocumented immigrants during a seven-day operation earlier this month, officials said.

Authorities with the local field office said 178 of those arrested during the sweep, which occurred May 11-17, face criminal convictions or charges. Some of the charges include domestic violence, cocaine possession, larceny, driving under the influence, drug trafficking, weapon offenses and assault, according to ICE’s statement.

The operation comes as the Trump White House has pledged to conduct mass deportations of 1 million people annually, a goal that data shows it’s likely to fall short of by half. The administration has also faced pushback in the courts over its attempt to use an archaic wartime law to expel undocumented migrants with little or no due process.

Nationwide, ICE deported some 11,000 migrants in February and more than 12,300 in the first four weeks of March, according to an NBC News deportation tracker.

While the Trump administration has repeatedly said it’s prioritized deportation of dangerous criminals, ICE data collected by NBC News shows that about half of those deported in February had no criminal records. Further, more than half of the people in ICE detention as of May 12 have no criminal charges or convictions, numbers show.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Federal Bureau of Investigations, U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Marshals Service assisted the San Antonio ICE office in the recent arrests, officials said. 

“These joint operations show the public what can be done when agencies work together toward a common goal of public safety,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations San Antonio acting Field Office Director Sylvester M. Ortega said in a statement.

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This article appears in May 14-27, 2025.