The US Department of Homeland Security chief forcefully defended the start of a controversial deportation operation that resulted in the apprehension of 121 adults and children, mostly Central American immigrants who sought legal asylum in the United States but were ordered to leave the country.

“As I have said repeatedly, our borders are not open to illegal migration; if you come here illegally, we will send you back consistent with our laws and values,” Jeh Johnson, the secretary of homeland security, said on Monday.



Johnson and other officials said those who were detained over the weekend were largely Central American migrants who had crossed the southern border illegally after 1 May 2014 and were subject to final orders of removal from an immigration court. Raids in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas accounted for the majority of those now in custody, though Johnson characterized them as part of “concerted, nationwide enforcement operations”.



While harsh and, at times, inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants has emerged on the 2016 presidential campaign trail, a senior administration official said the raids had “nothing to do with the caterwaulings of any member of the political class”. Instead, the action reflected, the official said, a longstanding reaction to the increase in Central American families and unaccompanied children attempting to cross the US-Mexico border.



Johnson said that additional surges in immigration enforcement “will continue to occur as appropriate”.

The homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson: ‘If you come here illegally, we will send you back.’ Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

The deportation campaign amounts to the first large-scale effort to deport people who fled violence from drug wars in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize.





On Saturday in Norcross, Georgia, ICE agents arrived at the home of Joanna Gutierrez, according to the Los Angeles Times. The agents reportedly arrived in an unmarked car and presented Gutierrez with a warrant for a man she didn’t know. Gutierrez told them to stay outside, but the agents went in anyway. They searched the house before revealing that they were looking for Ana Lizet-Mejía, Gutierrez’s niece, and her niece’s nine-year-old son. Gutierrez told the Times that the two were taken into custody.



Lizet-Mejía, who recently received a court order to leave the US after her asylum request was rejected, fled Honduras with her son after her brother was murdered by gang members. The mother and child were among the many so-called “drug war refugees” from Central America, including children who make the harrowing journey on their own. In the 2015 fiscal year, more than 100,000 people from Central America were caught crossing into the United States illegally.

Matthew Bourke, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that the new deportation push was intended to “further deter individuals from undertaking the journey”.



He added that the United States was exploring options to give Central Americans expanded access to its refugee admissions program. “We aim to ensure that there are safe, lawful and orderly options available,” Bourke said.

When the plans for a large-scale deportation effort were initially reported by the Washington Post in late December, immigrant rights groups such as America’s Voice released statements condemning the Obama administration, calling it “appalling” and “shameful” that refugees would be sent back to “places where rape, sexual abuse and murder are commonplace”.

“Most disturbingly,” a statement from America’s Voice read, “the plan raises the ugly specter of the very mass roundups and deportation advocated by several candidates running for the GOP presidential nomination – most notably Donald Trump.”

As drug violence has surged, the number of asylum requests from Mexican and Central American immigrants has increased dramatically. Yet advocacy groups say there aren’t enough pro-bono immigration lawyers to support the population, resulting in many cases being rejected, even when circumstances merit a legal stay.

Homeland Security said it was specifically targeting adults and children ordered to leave the US by an immigration judge. But advocacy groups dispute whether that order is actually being followed on the ground.

“We’ve heard testimonies of agents asking other people in the home for immigration papers and even taking children into custody,” Tania Unzueta, an activist from #Not1More Deportation, said on Sunday. “It seems like a tactic that is designed to cause fear, intimidate and make some sort of political point.”

Unzueta said that the raids were “nothing new”, but noted that in recent years ICE had targeted only those with criminal records. The fact that children and families were now being sought was inspiring some in the immigrant rights community to express frustrations with their traditional allies in the Democratic party.

Casa, the largest immigrant rights group in the mid-Atlantic, tweeted last week: “You’re on notice!!” to the Democratic National Committee with a picture of a man holding a sign that read: “You want my voto? Say NO to deportations.”

Last week, the Miami Herald reported, a Honduran woman who had recently illegally crossed the border with her husband and children, spoke at a press conference held by activists. “I beg President Obama to put his hand over his heart and not do this,” she said, “for the sake of the children.”