(AP file photo)

President Donald Trump's promises to crack down on undocumented immigrants have translated into a big spike in arrests in New Jersey -- and federal officials say the numbers are likely to climb even higher.

New statistics released Friday show Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are making an increasing number of arrests in New Jersey as agents continue to step up enforcement under a directive from the Trump administration.

ICE's Newark office, which covers all of New Jersey, arrested 3,409 people in fiscal year 2018, according to federal data released Friday. That is a 7 percent increase in arrests compared to the previous fiscal year and a 52 percent increase compared to two years ago, when President Barack Obama's administration was still overseeing the agency.

Immigrants removed from the country either voluntarily or through deportation also climbed in New Jersey. ICE's Newark office oversaw the removal of 2,608 people in fiscal year, according to the data. That is a nearly 3 percent increase compared to the previous year.

"Consistent with President Trump’s Executive Orders issued in early 2017, U.S. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations has continued to use resources as effectively and efficiently as possible to enforce the nation’s immigration laws," ICE officials said in their report.

The new statistics are for fiscal year 2018, which ran from Oct. 1, 2017, to Sept. 30, 2018. They do not include the 105 people arrested in a massive five-day raid that spanned 16 New Jersey counties that ICE announced last week.

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Why are the numbers going up?

ICE began stepping up arrests nationwide shortly after President Donald Trump took office in January 2017. In one of his first acts as president, Trump used executive orders to direct ICE to broaden its focus to all immigrants living in the country illegally -- not just those who had committed serious crimes.

That meant more immigrants, including some with old deportation orders, were targeted for arrest. Some immigrants, including legal residents with relatively minor criminal convictions from years ago, were also arrested and detained awaiting deportation hearings.

New Jersey, which has one of the highest percentages of immigrants in the nation, has several cities and towns that have declared themselves "sanctuaries" for undocumented immigrants. The state attorney general also recently announced new rules limiting local police cooperation with ICE.

But that has not stopped ICE, which is a federal civil immigration enforcement agency, from making arrests and enforcing federal immigration laws.

Nationwide, there were 158,581 arrests by ICE in fiscal year 2018, according to the new federal data. That is an 11 percent increase compared to the previous year.

There were also 256,086 immigrants removed from the country in fiscal year 2018, a 13 percent increase over the previous year, according to the data.

About 6,000 of the people removed or deported were known or suspected gang members or terrorists, a 9 percent increase over the previous year's nationwide data, ICE said.

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How does New Jersey compare to the rest of the nation?

Though the number of arrests in New Jersey has been climbing at one of the highest rates in the nation, the total number of arrests by the Newark office is relatively small compared to some ICE offices in other states, including Texas.

The ICE offices in Dallas (17,644 arrests), Atlanta (15,189), Houston (14,333) and San Antonio (10,749) had the most arrests in fiscal 2018, according to the federal report.

However, many of those offices cover multiple states and larger population areas than ICE's Newark office, which covers only New Jersey.

An analysis released earlier this year by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan demographic research group, found the spike in ICE arrests in New Jersey was among the highest in the nation.

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Is this the most ICE arrests ever?

No, the arrest numbers were significantly higher during Obama's first year as president, when ICE made 297,898 arrests nationwide, federal statistics show.

However, the arrest numbers rapidly declined during Obama's final years in office. Unlike the Trump administration, Obama directed ICE to focus narrowly on the arrests of immigrants who had been convicted of serious crimes.

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Will the arrest numbers continue to climb in New Jersey?

ICE officials have told New Jersey residents to expect more arrests in their neighborhoods and workplaces once new state rules limiting how much local police can help immigration officials go into effect next year.

The new guidelines -- called the "Immigrant Trust Directive" -- were introduced by state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal last month and will go into effect in March. They cut back on how much New Jersey's 36,000 state and local police officers can assist ICE in arresting and removing immigrants.

The rules say local police can not assist ICE in civil immigration raids and can only hold undocumented immigrants in jail for ICE agents to pick up in limited circumstances.

ICE officials warn New Jersey's new directive means immigration agents will have no choice but to step up arrests in neighborhoods and businesses.

“As a result of limited cooperation with local and state authorities, ICE will have no choice but to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites, which will inevitably result in additional collateral arrests, instead of focusing on arrests at jails and prisons where transfers are safer for ICE officers and the community,” ICE officials said in a statement earlier this month.

A spokesman for the state attorney general’s office declined to respond to ICE’s warning of more immigration arrests.

“We don’t respond to threats. We’re focused on protecting New Jersey’s residents from harm,” said Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the state attorney general’s office.

The attorney general's office said the new rules do not create a "sanctuary" for undocumented immigrants in New Jersey and any immigrant who breaks the law will be prosecuted.

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Today we stand against against ICE and their unjust and inhumane detention and deportation machine ✊🏽 Today, Clergy... Posted by Faith in New Jersey on Thursday, December 13, 2018

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What do immigrants rights groups say?

As ICE arrests have risen in New Jersey, immigrant and civil rights groups have stepped up protests against the agency.

After ICE announced 105 people were arrested in a New Jersey raid last week, Make the Road New Jersey, an immigrant and workers rights organization, was among the groups denouncing ICE's tactics.

“ICE is a rogue agency that uses threats and retaliation to targets workers, families and long-time residents for deportation, often in violation of the constitution. No federal agency should operate this way,“ Make the Road New Jersey said in a statement.

The group called on New Jersey's Congressional delegation to defund ICE.

On Thursday, a rally was held outside the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark to protest the arrest of a Jamaican green card holder in the ICE raid. Dane Foster, a legal resident for decades, was picked up by ICE agents last week in Burlington County because of several old marijuana possession convictions he was fined for in the past, his family and attorney said.

Foster, a father of four children between ages 2 and 9, is being held in ICE detention awaiting a deportation hearing. His wife, a U.S. Army veteran, was among those at the rally.

"We demand that ICE not be funded," Afia Yunus, a Marlton attorney representing Foster, told the crowd. "That Congress refuse the continuation of money, our tax dollars, funneling into ICE and putting out brothers, fathers, sisters, mothers and children behind cages. We will not stand for it anymore."

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Read more about immigration:

ICE arrests husband of disabled U.S. Army vet

ICE slams N.J. over new rules limiting police cooperation

These N.J. public colleges enroll the most unauthorized immigrants

Meet N.J.'s most typical unauthorized immigrant

Is ICE targeting some legal immigrants for deportation?

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook.