STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Two hard-working Staten Islanders -- a father of three from Egypt and a Mexican convenient store worker -- have been caught up the nationwide immigration crackdown that's touched the borough.

Earlier this month, a 27-year-old Mexican native was arrested during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweep at a 7-Eleven store on Forest Avenue in Port Richmond, where he had been working and paying taxes the past eight years, his supporters said.

The undocumented employee was taken into custody and released a few hours later, they said, presumably because he didn't have a criminal record.

"Working was his crime," said Favio Ramirez-Caminatti, executive director of El Centro del Inmigrante, which is representing the worker in his immigration case. "He's here by himself. He's from Guerrero, where there's drug cartels and violence. It's not Disney Land."

An ICE spokeswoman did not return multiple requests to confirm the arrest.

Wael Kassem, an Egyptian dad from New Springville, was deported in October after spending the past 16 years in the country.

Kassem -- who was detained by ICE during a regular check-in on Aug. 3 -- was unable to say goodbye to his family one last time before boarding a plane to his native country. At the time, the Board of Immigration Appeals denied the stay of deportation filed for Kassem, his lawyer told the Advance in August.

But these are hardly the only cases.

There's more than a dozen similar situations on Staten Island, according to Cesar Vargas, an immigration reform activist who is New York's first undocumented immigrant to be admitted to the New York State Bar.

"We have at least three cases of detainment that are in the process of being deported," Vargas said. "It's happening. Some are too afraid to go public."

Ramirez-Caminatti said his office hears about two cases a month, when people call claiming a relative has been arrested.

"It's a lot because we know a lot of the families," he said. "(The 7-Eleven sweep) signals a new strategy because it includes employers. Are you going to go to all restaurants? You'd have to close them down."

NEW YORK CITY AREA STATS SPIKE

The surge has not just hit Staten Island, but across New York City immigration arrests have skyrocketed in fiscal year 2017 in key categories, including total arrests, criminal and non-criminal arrests, according to data obtained from ICE.

From October 2016 to September 2017, there were 2,576 total arrests, including 674 non-criminal busts, a 175 percent increase from the 245 the previous fiscal year, the stats show.

The numbers confirm non-criminal deportation numbers spiked 152 percent -- from 313 in fiscal year 2016 to 791 the following year.

Overall deportation stats nearly doubled from 1,037 in 2016 to 2,006 the following fiscal year.

"These numbers are going to go up," Vargas said. "There's an increased immigration presence around courthouses and there will be more business raids. A lot of people are even going to lose work protection orders."

Specific numbers for Staten Island were not available. New York City area statistics include the five boroughs and Long Island.

DEPORTER IN CHIEF

While data shows President Donald Trump's first year in office saw a spike in immigration enforcement, the increase is minor compared to a couple of years in former President Barack Obama's administration.

From 2009 to 2016, more than 3 million undocumented immigrants -- most of whom were sent back to Mexico -- were deported, according to Newsweek.

According to the ICE data for New York City, there were 5,633 total arrests, including 1,827 non-criminal, in fiscal year 2013.

There were also 1,425 non-criminal removals the same year.

The numbers were comparably high in fiscal year 2014, which had 4,936 total arrests. There were 1,418 non-criminal arrests, and 741 non-criminal aliens were deported, the stats show.

Obama has deported more people than any American president, earning him the moniker "Deporter In Chief."

However, immigration experts say Obama's administration included guidelines that targeted people with criminal records, terrorists and recent border crossers.

Under Trump, though, immigration enforcement has expanded to non-criminals, critics fear.

"ICE has been given more authority," Vargas added. "Now they can target anyone. Under Obama, it was those with serious criminal records."

'THE TRUMP EFFECT' NATIONWIDE



(U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

The number of total arrests in the United States increased by 30 percent in fiscal year 2017 compared to the prior year, according to an ICE enforcement and removal operations report.

There were 119,772 captures in fiscal year 2015; 110,104 the following year; and 143,470 in 2017, the report said.

More than 110,000 of those 2017 arrests came after Trump signed the executive public safety order in January 2017, authorities said.

Also, the data confirms that arrests of criminal aliens also increased by 12 percent in fiscal year 2017. The 105,736 busts were for various offenses, including sex crimes, homicide, assault, robbery, drugs and guns, officials said.

The reports claims there were 37,734 non-criminal arrests in 2017, and nearly 32,000 of them came after Trump's order.

"ICE has been more aggressive targeting undocumented immigrants," Vargas said. "There is more fear after 7-Eleven (sweeps), they will go to construction sites and even corners where people congregate looking for work."

In 2017 more than 15 percent of non-criminal aliens had pending criminal charges, and an additional proportion were immigration fugitives or previous removals, according to an ICE spokesman.

But despite the surge in arrests, the overall deportation numbers decreased over the past three fiscal years.

In fiscal year 2017, there were 226,119 total removals, compared to 240,255 in 2016 and 235,413 in 2015, said the report.

"That's the Trump effect," Ramirez-Caminatti said. "People stopped coming to the U.S."

(U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

The decrease, experts say, could be attributed to the lack of immigration courts and judges, as well as local law enforcement not turning over detainers to ICE.

In fiscal year 2017, law enforcement agencies declined 8,170 detainers, as compared with 3,623 in 2016, the stats show.

"This is the greatest number of declined detainers over the last three fiscal years," said the report.

(U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

In 2017, ICE sent the NYPD requests for 1,400 detainees, but the police department did not hand over one person, police brass said.

ICE records a detainer as declined when a law enforcement agency fails to maintain custody of an alien for up to 48 hours, authorities said.

"The NYPD does not engage or work with ICE," police officials said last month.

As a result, Vargas feels immigration officers will target sanctuary cities more to make them an example.

"I think they're going to be heavy-handed when it comes to New York City," he said.