Targeted immigration enforcement operations happening in Oklahoma

Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect how many immigrations enforcement operations Oklahoma FBI agents have assisted with in recent weeks.

Targeted immigration enforcement operations are happening in Oklahoma, reflecting a trend playing out in every part of the country.

The Oklahoma City FBI office posted on Friday about helping with Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

On Monday, the field office posted again, but about arrests made in an illegal drug trafficking operation in Bristow, which involved foreign nationals and ICE agents.

An Oklahoma City FBI spokesperson said the agency was under a DOJ directive to assist with the ICE operations, and had been for a few weeks. The field office has assisted with 10 to 12 operations in both the OKC and Tulsa metro areas since receiving the DOJ directive, the spokesperson said.

A cornerstone of President Trump's first month in office

Several executive orders have come out of the White House since President Trump retook the office, with many targeting the immigration crisis. Trump's new border czar, Tom Homan, has been a source of inspiration for Oklahoma officials who have launched Operation Guardian to deport undocumented people currently incarcerated in Oklahoma's prisons and correction system.

"We want people to come into our country, but we want them to come in legally," Trump told reporters on Monday in the White House. "They have to go through a process."

While Trump's executive orders have empowered a new wave of enforcement operations, those operations have, so far, seemingly been focused on undocumented people with prior criminal history unrelated to their legal status. A member of Oklahoma's Legislative Hispanic Caucus said recent operations did not yet seem out of the ordinary.

Oklahoma group provides immigration legal services

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City provides immigration legal services for people in need in the metro. Its executive director, Patrick Raglow, said there has not yet been a change to how it operates.

"This is nothing new to Catholic Charities," he said. "Through Democratic administrations, through Republican administrations, through lean times, and through prosperous times. So, we serve, as we always have, in full compliance with U.S. immigration law."

Raglow's team provides a variety of services for people working to obtain their legal status.

"The church stands absolutely with vulnerable people on the move," Raglow said. "But we do not stand for illegality. The church is not an open borders church. We respond to the community. We respond to the needs. We respond to families. We respond to those in front of us."

ICE statistics in Oklahoma

ICE has not yet provided numbers on how many people have been arrested in Oklahoma in recent weeks, or how many operations have been conducted.