Over the last two weeks the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has arrested nearly 700 people.

The new Homeland Security secretary John Kelly said: "These operations targeted public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, as well as individuals who have violated our nation's immigration laws."

He went on: "...including those who illegally re-entered the country after being removed and immigration fugitives ordered removed by federal immigration judge."

But despite the description of these action as "routine" and "targeted", they have caused great fear in some of the country's immigrant communities who fear the raids will intensify and broaden in scope under the direction of Donald Trump.

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I went out with a group of 15 and 16-year-old students who had become experts in what to do if an ICE agent were to knock on their door.

They handed information leaflets to shoppers on the main street of their Staten Island neighbourhood, where a handful of people were detained during the most recent enforcement activity.

Image: Leaflets giving people advice on what to do if immigration officers arrive at their home

Irma Barrios, who was born in America, said: "I'm terrified.

"Personally, my mum's undocumented, I have younger siblings, I have an older brother who can't really take care of himself. I'm personally terrified of the fact that I might have to lose my mum soon.

"It's really getting wild over here, you don't know where to go, people are telling you different things, like my mom personally told me not to go out the whole weekend, like if it's not for school reasons or club reasons I shouldn't be going out at all.

"We really never know when the day might come.

"We like celebrated my mum's birthday earlier during the weekend - we didn't even know if she was coming home from work."

Image: Immigrant communities say many families could be ripped apart

Nearby at the El Centro immigrant support centre, people queued out of the door to speak to officials from the Mexican consulate who had sent a team there for the day.

The centre's director, Favio Ramirez-Caminatti, said they were trying to get passports and documents sorted out in case of detention and deportation back to home countries.

He said: "They are not only concerned but they are scared about what is happening.

"We understand that a president should govern for everyone - must govern for everyone - but Donald Trump does not represent the immigrant community.

"People are scared to go everywhere, to go to church, to go to schools, to go to work, they are really scared and that's very concerning because that's affecting not only their social life but also the economy of this country.

"Most of the families are mixed families which means there are undocumented immigrants, permanent residents and American citizens in the same families.

"When Trump is talking about deportation that affects not only undocumented immigrants but also entire families... he's talking about deporting the parents of American citizens.

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Community activists all over New York - home to around four million immigrants - are preparing for the ICE raids to get worse.

At one training session I heard them discuss setting up rapid text alerts to warn of ICE activity, and creating a network of safe houses and spaces to shelter vulnerable families.

New York is a so called 'sanctuary city' where undocumented immigrants are protected, to an extent, from deportation.

But Donald Trump has pledged to crack down on these cities.

He is not the first president to declare that federal immigration law should be enforced more fully and it is also important to say that he was elected by millions of Americans who believe he is doing the right thing.

But the combination of his rhetoric and willingness to use sweeping executive orders to deliver on those promises has genuinely scared people who have been living in this country for decades.

Suddenly, they feel very unwelcome.