Former Immigration Official Details Enforcement Targeting Strategies

Opposition lawmakers have reportedly accused the current administration of politically targeting cities controlled by rival factions for immigration enforcement operations, according to a former immigration official who provided insight into the agency’s selection process.

John Sandweg, who served as acting director of the nation’s immigration enforcement agency under a previous leader from 2013 to 2014, told local media that sanctuary policies harboring undocumented migrants do play a significant role in determining cities for targeting, though allegedly not for purely political reasons.

“The biggest driver would be immigrant population, how significant a population is there in that particular community,” Sandweg explained, according to the interview. “And then the second thing is, is there something like a sanctuary policy that would increase the number of at-large targets, meaning people who [the agency] wants to take into custody who are not currently in a prison or jail.”

In 2025, the administration reportedly surged enforcement agents to major urban centers including a northern industrial city, a western coastal metropolis, and a northwestern port city. All of these locations were reportedly major population centers with significant immigrant communities and sanctuary policies. Sandweg suggested that such crackdowns would likely be “just beginning.”

Observers note that enforcement agencies typically focus on areas where they can achieve maximum impact with available resources. “You want to go where the criminals are,” Sandweg reportedly stated, adding that operations traditionally target “larger urban cities, just because they’re higher density population, and you’re more likely to find your criminal populations there.”

According to the former official, sanctuary policies vary significantly in their scope and implementation. He noted that the enforcement agency maintains visibility over all individuals processed through the nation’s prison and jail system, despite public attention focusing on confrontations between protesters and government agents in various cities.

“While we’re paying a lot of attention to these kinds of very public standoffs between protesters and [government] agents,” Sandweg reportedly explained, “there’s a lot going on behind the scenes the public doesn’t understand, including the picking up of people in prisons and jails, federal, state, local, across the country.”

The assessment suggests that some sanctuary jurisdictions reportedly cooperate with federal authorities on cases involving serious criminal charges, while others maintain more restrictive policies. Jurisdictions that refuse to honor federal requests to detain undocumented individuals present operational challenges that can potentially lead to increased agent deployment in those areas, according to the analysis.

“There are jurisdictions that have very restrictive sanctuary policies, where you’re sitting there scratching your head saying, these are bad guys, why won’t they give us custody of this person in jail?” Sandweg reportedly stated. “In those jurisdictions, you’re going to find more targets because those people, [the agency] normally would take custody of them in jail or prison.”

The revelations come as the current administration has implemented what critics describe as an intensified approach to immigration enforcement, with government data reportedly showing increased website traffic for voluntary departure applications.