Massive ICE sweep fuels GOP push to lock Trump immigration crackdown into law
A massive five- day ICE operation that netted 426 arrests across Indiana is fueling Hoosier Sen. Jim Banks’ push for Congress to cement President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown into law before a future administration can reverse course.
Banks hailed "Operation Safe Community: Indiana" in a Fox News Digital interview this week after federal immigration officers fanned out across his home state from Aug. 30 through Sept. 3, arresting 426 people with records involving sex crimes, assault, domestic violence, drug trafficking and weapons offenses, according to ICE.
"This is why Donald Trump was elected in 2024: for mass deportation," Banks told Fox News Digital. "It was one of his key agenda items during the campaign. And in this case in Indiana, you see the direct result of it."
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S IMMIGRATION PUSH FUELS ICE'S BIGGEST ARREST MONTH IN AGENCY HISTORY
Left: Immigrants stream in through the U.S. southern border. Right: Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo; Getty)
ICE also credited cooperation with state and local law enforcement agencies in carrying out the operation, something Republicans have flagged as a key aspect to successful enforcement.
But Banks argued the operation also underscores a limitation of Trump’s crackdown: aggressive executive enforcement today does not guarantee that the same immigration policies survive the next administration.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, along with other federal law enforcement agencies, attend a pre-enforcement meeting in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. President Donald Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation effort in US history, vowing to ultimately deport all of the foreigners living in the country without permission. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"It is important that we codify Trump border security measures and tough-on-immigration policies and make them the law of the land," he said.
The busts build on the lawmaker’s seven-bill immigration package, previously reported by Fox News Digital, which targets issues including birthright citizenship, family-based immigration, H-1B visas, noncitizens’ CDLs and congressional authority over Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to limit judicial intervention.
"If this could happen in Indiana, it could happen anywhere," he added, arguing that the opposition has made it tougher to achieve immigration goals after displacing ICE from the 2025 immigration appropriations legislation.
"They've made that one of their biggest priorities in this Congress to defund our federal law enforcement, to stop ICE from doing their job, to deport violent criminals who are here illegally," he said.
"So it is important that we codify Trump border security measures and tough-on-immigration policies and make them the law of the land so that the next time, God forbid, a Joe Biden ever gets elected back to the White House or someone that comes from that radical wing of the Democrat Party…"
Banks also directed his frustration at his own party, criticizing the Republican-led Senate for failing to advance separate election legislation that he says should be another priority.
Many on the right have pressed for passage of the SAVE Act, a bill requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
"That’s one of my biggest disappointments with this Republican Senate – we haven’t passed [it]," he said.
"I hope by the end of the year that we can find a way to pass it. I'm going to keep fighting for it, but at the end of the day, the Trump administration and the Department of Justice is doing a lot crack down on illegals voting in our elections."
In a separate Indiana case, DHS arrested an illegal immigrant on Sept. 18 who had entered the U.S. during the Obama administration and later cast a federal ballot.
ICE Enforcement Division Assistant Director Patricia Hyde said the right to vote is the "cornerstone of democracy" in announcing the capture of Guatemalan national Helda Mendez-Merida for "poisoning our elections."
"We cannot allow that sacred right [to vote] to be perverted," she said.
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Banks said such incidents keep surfacing "because Joe Biden and Democrats flooded our country with tens of millions of illegals – they’re still here [and] mass deportation is important."
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has repeatedly pushed back on criticism he is not working hard enough to pass the SAVE Act or advance the Trump agenda.
Thune previously told Fox News Digital that he is an original co-sponsor of a previous version of the bill and that the 50-vote threshold needed to pass provisions that qualify for the parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation remains a sticking point.
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"I keep asking the question, am I the only one in this town that can count to 50? Because it seems like these questions recur and there are a lot of people out there who haven't seemed to internalize the fact that there aren't Democrats that are going to flip and vote for this," Thune said.
Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.
Born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, worked in both the New York and Washington bureaus for Fox News since 2013.
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