U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made arrests Sunday along Buford Highway in Chamblee and Brookhaven, near Tucker and Lilburn, according to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with federal partners including the FBI, ATF and DEA, began conducting enhanced targeted operations today in Atlanta to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities,” an agency spokesperson told the AJC.
The FBI Atlanta Field Office said in a statement to the AJC, “The FBI, along with our Department of Justice partners, is assisting DHS and other federal law enforcement partners with their immigration enforcement efforts.”
It’s unclear how many arrests were made, but the AJC said one arrest was made outside a church near Tucker.
According to Pastor Luis Ortiz, ICE authorities came to the church around noon asking for an individual. Ortiz said they called the individual outside the church, where a service was in session, and made the arrest.
“They don’t explain nothing or why, and we are surprised, because we don’t know what’s going on,” he told the AJC.
The ICE crackdown is part of President Donald Trump’s promised mass deportation of “criminal aliens” across the country. More than 1,400 arrests have been nationwide since Trump took office last week.
READ MORE: Organizations react to ICE raids in DeKalb, Brookhaven.