More than twice as many undocumented immigrants in New Jersey with no criminal histories were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last year as compared to 2016, a direct result of the dragnet-style policy set forth by President Trump.

Of the 3,189 immigrants arrested by ICE in the Garden State in fiscal year 2017, 1,271 did not have a criminal conviction, significantly more than the 571 from the previous year, according to records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act and analyzed by NJ Advance Media.

Put another way, more than 3 immigrants with no criminal record were arrested per day in the state last year.

Both total arrests and the number of those arrested with a criminal record increased as a result of President Trump's January 2017 executive order that greatly expanded who ICE considered to be an "enforcement priority" to include people with no criminal convictions.

That was a reversal of a 2014 memo issued by then-President Barack Obama that prioritized the arrests of those who had committed serious crimes.

Advocates say the most alarming element of the increase in non-criminal arrests is the number of immigrants arrested during ICE operations intended to target other people.

"They're collateral," said Chia-Chia Wang, the organizing and advocacy director of American Friends Service Committee, an immigrant rights group. "They go after someone they are targeting, but because the other people that are with them are also deportable, they get arrested too."

A spokesman for Newark's ICE office said the agency continues to focus on undocumented immigrants who pose a threat.

"While ICE continues to prioritize its enforcement resources to focus on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security," the spokesman said, "the agency's acting director has made it clear that ICE will not exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement."

It's unclear how many of the non-criminal arrests last year were the result of previous removal orders being enforced. The office spokesman said that statistic was not available.

Non-criminal arrests fell significantly in the U.S. in 2015 and 2016 after Obama's executive order. But all of that changed yet again after Trump took office.

Of all ICE field offices, the Newark region had the highest percentage of arrests of undocumented immigrants with no prior criminal convictions in 2017, according to a recent Pew report. About 40 percent of arrests were non-criminal last fiscal year, up from about 25 percent in 2016.

Advocates have noticed the uptick in non-criminal arrests, especially targeting people with outstanding removal orders going back years that, until recently, had not been a priority for ICE.

In January, two Indonesian undocumented immigrants living in Metuchen and Franklin Park with removal orders were arrested while dropping their kids off at school as part of a targeted operation by ICE.

Immigration lawyers at non-profits like the American Friends Service Committee and American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey have also seen an increase in arrests of undocumented immigrants with removal orders that come in for their routine check-ins with ICE.

"They're low priority," Farrin Anello, senior attorney for the ACLU in New Jersey. "These people have been giving their addresses to ICE, checking in every year and following all of the rules."

Anello said even targeting people with criminal histories is far from perfect.

"People are more than the sum of their offenses," Anello said. "For a prosecutor, it's not just looking at criminal history, but also their work situation or family history."

A previous criminal conviction can also mean anything from a conviction of a violent crime to a traffic violation.

According to ICE's fiscal year 2017 report, the five most common criminal convictions nationwide among those arrested by the agency were driving under the influence of alcohol, possessing or selling "dangerous drugs", previous immigration offenses such as falsifying citizenship claims, traffic offenses and assault.

In addition, the prior convictions may have occurred decades ago, with someone since living productively and without incident in the country for several generations.



"Their convictions may be way out of proportion to the penalty that they're being given," Anello said. "To be banished from the country."

Carla Astudillo may be reached at castudillo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @carla_astudi. Find her on Facebook.