Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has ramped up the rate of arrests of illegal migrants in Pittsburgh to triple that of the Biden administration.
The Trump administration has taken about 580 illegals into custody in Pittsburgh so far this year compared with only 210 in the same time frame during Joe Biden’s final year in office, according to Axios.
The rise in arrests has occurred despite the Democrat-led city — which has not been led by Republicans since 1934 — not allowing Pittsburgh police officers to assist ICE in its legal immigration enforcement actions.
The numbers were calculated by a non-governmental group called Deportation Data Project which seeks to lend support to organizations that work to aid illegal immigration.
However, outside the Pittsburgh police, eight other agencies in the region have signed ICE’s 287(g) agreements and have been working with the agency on immigration enforcement, Axios said in a separate report.
Sources including Pew and the Center for Migration Studies estimate the population of illegal aliens in Pennsylvania to have risen to about 300,000.
The increased ICE presence has activists calling foul. The activists were especially upset by one raid of a restaurant on August 7, and have blasted ICE for leaving the business in disarray. Activists even blamed ICE officers for starting a fire in the kitchen area of the establishment as they arrested illegals working there. But ICE noted that the fire was actually started by the illegals.
An ICE spokesman told NBC News that the “damage to the restaurant, including the small fire, was created by the illegal aliens themselves while they were trying to escape or hide from law enforcement officers.”
Some businesses are raising the alarm that the ICE raids are making laborers harder to find as some leave the city, others stop going to work, and yet more are arrested and set on the path to deportation.
Businesses are upset that their source of cheap labor is tightening. They worry over having to hire Americans at higher wages and are upset at being forced to pay more benefits to employees.
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