ICE detailed only 8 of 180-plus people it arrested in a north Alabama sweep

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says a five-day immigration sweep across four north Alabama counties put more than 180 people in federal custody ²³. The agency announced the results on Monday, two days before the midterm election. It gave the reasons for holding only eight of them ².

The operation ran the week of Oct. 19 in Lawrence, Franklin, Colbert and Marshall counties ². ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations office in New Orleans led it, with help from the sheriff's offices in all four counties ²³. Authorities have not released a county-by-county count, and the Marshall County Sheriff's Office did not list individual charges ⁴.

That matters because eight out of more than 180 is less than 5 percent. For everyone else, the public has been told almost nothing about why they were taken or whether they were ever convicted of anything.

What the sheriff and ICE said

Marshall County Sheriff Phil Sims announced the arrests on Saturday, Oct. 31. He said his deputies worked directly with ICE agents to find and arrest people ⁴³.

From Channel GOPEl-Sayed: Medicaid cuts timed for after midtermsAbdul El-Sayed · 160 plays · captioned, with the source named

Our deputies were not simply providing support from the sidelines.

Sims said the effort was "not about someone's race, ethnicity, or nationality" and pointed to the criminal histories of some of the people arrested ³. Scott Ladwig, acting director of ICE's New Orleans field office, said his office "is committed to protecting our communities by identifying and apprehending illegal aliens" ³.

ICE said "many of the aliens have criminal histories" ². The eight people it described include a Mexican man who ICE says was deported five times and has four drunk-driving convictions. Another is a Guatemalan man ICE calls an aggravated felon, with convictions for wanton endangerment, drunk driving and fleeing police ³.

Those eight cases mixed convictions with arrests that did not necessarily end in convictions ². One Honduran man had been arrested on a second-degree rape charge that ended in deferred prosecution ³. As WEIS Radio's report reminded listeners, "An arrest is not a conviction." ⁴

A harassment charge that the law doesn't list

One case shows how thin the public record is. ICE said Darwin Ordana, 29, of Honduras, is in mandatory detention under the Laken Riley Act because of an alleged third-degree harassment offense on Oct. 18 ². The Decatur Daily pointed out that harassment is not one of the offenses that law lists. The list covers crimes such as theft, burglary, assaulting a police officer, and offenses that cause death or serious injury ².

The Laken Riley Act became law in January 2025. Its sponsor was Alabama's Republican senator, Katie Britt ². Ordana remains in federal custody while his immigration case moves forward ².

Local deputies with federal powers

All four sheriff's offices take part in ICE's 287(g) program, which lets trained local officers carry out some federal immigration enforcement under ICE supervision ²³. Franklin and Colbert counties have broader agreements that cover their jails. Marshall County works with ICE both on a task force and in its jail. Lawrence County joined in 2025 with limited authority ².

Lawrence County Chief Deputy Brian Covington would not describe what happened. "We're a part of their operation, so it's not up to us to comment on their operation," he told the Decatur Daily ². He said federal agents briefly brought detainees to the county jail ². Not every local agency has signed on. Decatur's written policy bars the city from joining the program because it conflicts with the department's community policing approach ².

The pattern is regional. ICE's New Orleans region covers Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee. A Gulf States Newsroom analysis found it had the second-highest arrest rate in the country relative to its noncitizen population, with more than 45,000 arrests from January 2025 to early August 2026 ⁷. Alabama and Mississippi hand people from local custody over to ICE at roughly three to four times Louisiana's rate, mostly from county jails ⁷.

Days before the vote

The arrests came days before Tuesday's election, and experts, advocates and Latino citizens questioned the timing ¹. Francisco Amaya and his mother, Yesi Ramos, told AL.com they were worried about going to vote because of fear in the local Hispanic community ¹. Videos also surfaced of people in Enterprise, Alabama, being stopped and questioned about their immigration status ¹.

NPR reported that ICE activity surged in several states during October ⁶. Asked about it, the agency told NPR that "ICE agents uphold our nation's immigration laws in all 50 states, seven days a week, 24 hours a day." ⁶

The tactics that the administration has been deploying in communities really appear to be designed to try to intimidate voters,

Weiser also said, "The good news is: it isn't working." She said participation was rising in the communities ICE has targeted ⁶.

What Democrats have promised

House Democrats have said for more than a year that they would rein in ICE if they won the House. Rep. Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, told Newsweek he expected "there's going to be conditions put on funding for the Department of Homeland Security" ⁸. He named requirements such as a ban on agents covering their faces, body cameras, visible badge numbers, and a hearing before a judge for anyone ICE detains ⁸.

We’re getting no transparency from DHS at all.

The committee's Republican chairman, Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York, took the opposite view. "After four years of being sidelined, ICE is finally empowered to fulfill its front line law enforcement mission," he said ⁸.

The north Alabama sweep is the kind of case that oversight would test. More than 180 people are in custody, and the public has been told why for eight of them. The open questions are simple: who the rest are, how many have ever been convicted of a crime, and what rules the local deputies followed.

The Record

1. Oct 15, 2025By this date, Rep. Seth Magaziner had told Newsweek that Democrats would attach conditions to Homeland Security funding if they won the House ⁸.
2. Sep 16, 2026A Gulf States Newsroom analysis finds ICE's New Orleans region has the nation's second-highest arrest rate, with more than 45,000 arrests since January 2025 ⁷.
3. Oct 21, 2026Arrests are made in Russellville during the five-day ICE operation in four north Alabama counties ³.
4. Oct 31, 2026Marshall County Sheriff Phil Sims announces about 180 arrests and says his deputies worked directly with ICE agents ⁴.
5. Nov 2, 2026ICE announces more than 180 arrests but gives the reasons for detention for only eight people ².

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<h2>ICE detailed only 8 of 180-plus people it arrested in a north Alabama sweep</h2> <p><em>By The GOP Files National Desk. This article first appeared on <a href="https://thegopfiles.com/story/ice-detailed-only-8-of-180-plus-people-it-arrested-in-a-north-alabama-sweep">The GOP Files</a> on Wednesday, November 4, 2026.</em></p> <p>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says a five-day immigration sweep across four north Alabama counties put more than 180 people in federal custody . The agency announced the results on Monday, two days before the midterm election. It gave the reasons for holding only eight of them .</p> <p>The operation ran the week of Oct. 19 in Lawrence, Franklin, Colbert and Marshall counties . ICE&#39;s Enforcement and Removal Operations office in New Orleans led it, with help from the sheriff&#39;s offices in all four counties . Authorities have not released a county-by-county count, and the Marshall County Sheriff&#39;s Office did not list individual charges .</p> <p>That matters because eight out of more than 180 is less than 5 percent. For everyone else, the public has been told almost nothing about why they were taken or whether they were ever convicted of anything.</p> <h2>What the sheriff and ICE said</h2> <p>Marshall County Sheriff Phil Sims announced the arrests on Saturday, Oct. 31. He said his deputies worked directly with ICE agents to find and arrest people .</p> <blockquote><p>Our deputies were not simply providing support from the sidelines.</p><p>&mdash; Phil Sims, Sheriff, Marshall County, Alabama</p></blockquote> <p>Sims said the effort was &quot;not about someone&#39;s race, ethnicity, or nationality&quot; and pointed to the criminal histories of some of the people arrested . Scott Ladwig, acting director of ICE&#39;s New Orleans field office, said his office &quot;is committed to protecting our communities by identifying and apprehending illegal aliens&quot; .</p> <p>ICE said &quot;many of the aliens have criminal histories&quot; . The eight people it described include a Mexican man who ICE says was deported five times and has four drunk-driving convictions. Another is a Guatemalan man ICE calls an aggravated felon, with convictions for wanton endangerment, drunk driving and fleeing police .</p> <p>Those eight cases mixed convictions with arrests that did not necessarily end in convictions . One Honduran man had been arrested on a second-degree rape charge that ended in deferred prosecution . As WEIS Radio&#39;s report reminded listeners, &quot;An arrest is not a conviction.&quot;</p> <h2>A harassment charge that the law doesn&#39;t list</h2> <p>One case shows how thin the public record is. ICE said Darwin Ordana, 29, of Honduras, is in mandatory detention under the Laken Riley Act because of an alleged third-degree harassment offense on Oct. 18 . The Decatur Daily pointed out that harassment is not one of the offenses that law lists. The list covers crimes such as theft, burglary, assaulting a police officer, and offenses that cause death or serious injury .</p> <p>The Laken Riley Act became law in January 2025. Its sponsor was Alabama&#39;s Republican senator, Katie Britt . Ordana remains in federal custody while his immigration case moves forward .</p> <h2>Local deputies with federal powers</h2> <p>All four sheriff&#39;s offices take part in ICE&#39;s 287(g) program, which lets trained local officers carry out some federal immigration enforcement under ICE supervision . Franklin and Colbert counties have broader agreements that cover their jails. Marshall County works with ICE both on a task force and in its jail. Lawrence County joined in 2025 with limited authority .</p> <p>Lawrence County Chief Deputy Brian Covington would not describe what happened. &quot;We&#39;re a part of their operation, so it&#39;s not up to us to comment on their operation,&quot; he told the Decatur Daily . He said federal agents briefly brought detainees to the county jail . Not every local agency has signed on. Decatur&#39;s written policy bars the city from joining the program because it conflicts with the department&#39;s community policing approach .</p> <p>The pattern is regional. ICE&#39;s New Orleans region covers Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee. A Gulf States Newsroom analysis found it had the second-highest arrest rate in the country relative to its noncitizen population, with more than 45,000 arrests from January 2025 to early August 2026 . Alabama and Mississippi hand people from local custody over to ICE at roughly three to four times Louisiana&#39;s rate, mostly from county jails .</p> <h2>Days before the vote</h2> <p>The arrests came days before Tuesday&#39;s election, and experts, advocates and Latino citizens questioned the timing . Francisco Amaya and his mother, Yesi Ramos, told AL.com they were worried about going to vote because of fear in the local Hispanic community . Videos also surfaced of people in Enterprise, Alabama, being stopped and questioned about their immigration status .</p> <p>NPR reported that ICE activity surged in several states during October . Asked about it, the agency told NPR that &quot;ICE agents uphold our nation&#39;s immigration laws in all 50 states, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.&quot;</p> <blockquote><p>The tactics that the administration has been deploying in communities really appear to be designed to try to intimidate voters,</p><p>&mdash; Wendy Weiser, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School</p></blockquote> <p>Weiser also said, &quot;The good news is: it isn&#39;t working.&quot; She said participation was rising in the communities ICE has targeted .</p> <h2>What Democrats have promised</h2> <p>House Democrats have said for more than a year that they would rein in ICE if they won the House. Rep. Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, told Newsweek he expected &quot;there&#39;s going to be conditions put on funding for the Department of Homeland Security&quot; . He named requirements such as a ban on agents covering their faces, body cameras, visible badge numbers, and a hearing before a judge for anyone ICE detains .</p> <blockquote><p>We’re getting no transparency from DHS at all.</p><p>&mdash; Seth Magaziner, U.S. representative, D-R.I., House Homeland Security Committee</p></blockquote> <p>The committee&#39;s Republican chairman, Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York, took the opposite view. &quot;After four years of being sidelined, ICE is finally empowered to fulfill its front line law enforcement mission,&quot; he said .</p> <p>The north Alabama sweep is the kind of case that oversight would test. More than 180 people are in custody, and the public has been told why for eight of them. The open questions are simple: who the rest are, how many have ever been convicted of a crime, and what rules the local deputies followed.</p> <p><em>Read the original, with every source linked, at <a href="https://thegopfiles.com/story/ice-detailed-only-8-of-180-plus-people-it-arrested-in-a-north-alabama-sweep">thegopfiles.com</a>. Republished under The GOP Files' <a href="https://thegopfiles.com/republish">free republishing terms</a>.</em></p> <img src="https://thegopfiles.com/api/rp/ice-detailed-only-8-of-180-plus-people-it-arrested-in-a-north-alabama-sweep.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" style="border:0;width:1px;height:1px">

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Sources

1. AL.com (via Yahoo News), “ICE arrests more than 180 people in north Alabama raid, sheriff says” (2026-11-01). yahoo.com/news/us/articles/ice-arrests-more-180-people-22314
2. The Decatur Daily (via Yahoo News), “ICE operation results in 180 arrests across north Alabama” (2026-11-03). yahoo.com/news/us/articles/ice-operation-results-180-arrests
3. Yellowhammer News, “Five DUIs, a rape arrest and seven deportations: ICE hauls in 180+ illegal aliens across four Alabama counties” (2026-11-03). yellowhammernews.com/five-duis-a-rape-arrest-and-seven-depor
4. WEIS Radio, “Sheriff Says Joint ICE Operation Led to About 180 Arrests Across North Alabama” (2026-11-02). weisradio.com/2026/11/02/joint-ice-operation-north-alabama-1
5. 256 Today, “ICE arrests more than 180 during North Alabama immigration operation” (2026-11-03). 256today.com/ice-arrests-more-than-180-during-north-alabama-
6. NPR (via WYPR), “ICE activity is surging ahead of midterms. So is voter turnout” (2026-10-30). wypr.org/2026-10-30/ice-activity-is-surging-ahead-of-midterm
7. WWNO / Gulf States Newsroom, “New Orleans ICE office has the second-highest arrest rate in the country, data shows” (2026-09-16). wwno.org/immigration/2026-09-16/new-orleans-ice-office-has-t
8. Newsweek, “Democrats Unveil Plans to Rein in ICE Agents If They Win Midterms” (2025-10-15). newsweek.com/democrats-ice-oversight-midterms-10870867

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