A few minutes after he left home for work, Lucas Dos Santos Amaral was stopped by immigration officers near his home in Marlborough, Mass. The officers mentioned the name of someone they were seeking, and said the man looked like him. The Brazilian doesn’t have a criminal history or orders for removal from a judge, meaning he doesn’t have the type of background the Trump administration laid out as its priority for deportation. Dos Santos Amaral, 29, identified himself to assure officers he wasn’t who they were looking for. The officers learned that he was overstaying a tourist visa from 2017. Dos Santos Amaral was arrested and detained on the spot and was moved to a detention center in Texas—without the knowledge of his lawyer or family, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Immigration officers are under immense pressure to ramp up arrest numbers as the administration tries to fulfill President Trump’s campaign promise of a mass deportation. The result is the administration, despite promoting arrests of criminals, has been detaining a number of migrants, like Dos Santos Amaral, who don’t have criminal backgrounds or orders for arrest. Living in the U.S. illegally is a civil violation subject to deportation but it isn’t a criminal offense. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 20,000 migrants living in the U.S. illegally in the first month of the Trump administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Arrests are on pace to more than double the 113,000 arrests ICE made under President Biden in fiscal year 2024. DHS said of those arrested, 22 were known suspected terrorists and 640 were suspected gang members. ICE officials told subordinates that the agency’s offices are each responsible for 75 arrests a day, or 1,000-1,500 arrests a day across the U.S.
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