In North Texas, Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are carrying out daily targeted enforcement actions, according to the agency’s local leadership. “Here in Dallas, we have officers in the field every single morning doing targeted enforcement actions,” said Robert Cerna, ac ting field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in Dallas. Cerna told NBC 5 that about 80 percent of arrests made by the Dallas ICE office involve people with criminal records. He said those individuals were targeted because they had received a final order of removal from an immigration judge and were considered a threat to public safety. Some arrests are made through ICE’s criminal alien program, Cerna said. “Individuals that are in county jails, and that we place a detainer on. These are individuals that are here in the country without documentation that have broken a law here in the United States,” Cerna said. Dallas Enforcement and Removal Operations told NBC 5 that, as of last week, the office had arrested more than 9,644 noncitizens since October 2025. Close to 8,000 of those arrested had criminal records or pending criminal charges. The Dallas ICE field office reported that it averages about 100 arrests per day, the second-highest total in the country. Cerna joined the Dallas ERO office in July, two months before a large ICE hiring event held in Arlington. “I can tell you that since that hiring event, our staffing level is pretty much doubled,” Cerna said. When asked how ICE coordinates with local law enforcement, Cerna said that because there is no 287(g) agreement in Dallas, Dallas police officers are limited to securing a safe perimeter during operations. “Our officers would reach out and indicate that we’re going to be in this area, conducting targeted enforcement operations, and we advise whatever jurisdiction that we’re in that area just so that they are aware that we, federal law enforcement, ICE officers are in that area,” Cerna said. According to data from the Deportation Data Project, arrests nationwide of people without a criminal history or pending charges have increased threefold, raising questions about whether ICE enforcement priorities are shifting away from convicted criminals. ...read more read less