One sticking point is ICE’s use of detainer requests, which the agency lodges with local police when it becomes aware that a person being detained is eligible for deportation. Through these requests, ICE asks local police to hold individuals for a longer period of time so that ICE agents can respond and assume custody of them.

The operation focused on “transnational organized crime, gangs, and egregious illegal alien offenders," immigration officials said.

Immigration authorities conducted what they called an "enhanced targeted enforcement operation" in Massachusetts last week that resulted in over 370 arrests.