(CN) – For the second time this year, immigrant communities and advocacy groups braced for deportation raids that began Sunday across the nation as promised by President Donald Trump, who telegraphed the federal immigration activity via Twitter last month.
The raids were scaled back at the last minute due to media reports, according to the New York Times.
Immigration advocacy groups say activity from federal agents quietly began earlier in the week, but additional deportation raids are expected to continue for the next several days.
A reported 2,000 undocumented residents who received removal orders from federal courts are targeted in the raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. By Sunday afternoon, a handful of arrests by federal agents were reported from the 10 target cities.
Despite the lower arrest numbers, immigration attorneys think other undocumented residents may be picked up who do not fall into the targeted group.
“Even if the residents in the home are not specific targets the federal agents could have no consideration for those who are targets and those who could become collateral,” said Los Angeles-based immigration attorney Sabrina Damast.
Clients who do not have final removal orders and would not be targeted in the raids have called Damast, frightened about the prospect that they could be picked up at work and their children left alone. Most clients are in the middle of court procedures.
She advised her clients to learn their constitutional rights, not to open the door to federal agents without a warrant and contact a lawyer if someone is being detained.
Whatever happens in the next few weeks will be added to the fears that have been stoked by the federal government, Damast said.
“The primary intended harm is not the people who will be deported. It’s the fear that will be instilled into the communities. When fear and uncertainty exists, it only encourages non-lawyers to take advantage of people,” she said.
Advocacy group Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles said 15 federal agents visited one family earlier in the week, but they refused to open the door and the agents left soon after.
Shannon Camacho, coalition coordinator with the advocacy group, said there are about 300 immigration attorneys on call, ready to contact undocumented people who are detained and brought to federal processing facilities in Southern California, though it’s unclear if advocacy groups will be allowed to have access in these facilities.
Two separate lawsuits against the federal government were filed in the last few days to ensure due process and right to counsel for detained immigrants would be allowed at federal detention facilities.
Law enforcement from several major U.S. cities said they would not participate in the proposed raids, including Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock told National Public Radio that the 10 U.S. cities were selected based on immigration court dockets. Hancock said he believe the operation will include rounding up children.
Law enforcement officials in U.S cities, including Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago, have pledged not to take part in any of the raids. But in Miami-Dade County in Florida, police have agreed to detain suspected undocumented immigrants so they can be processed by federal agents.