ICE arrests began surging long before LA raids, 7 On Your Side Investigates finds

President Donald Trump campaigned on cracking down on undocumented immigrants, and the numbers show he is delivering on his promise.

Even before the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids started in the Los Angeles area a week and a half ago, ICE arrests were already surging.

"No protestors are going to block our way," said Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons while he was in Los Angeles last week. "Since Jan. 20, we've been making arrests in Los Angeles and all around the country."

He's not kidding. Since Trump's second swearing-in, arrests made by ICE have skyrocketed.

Last month, even before ICE activity surged in Southern California, the agency made 23,564 arrests across the country, according to a Congressional Report submitted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In May of last year, ICE made just 8,451 arrests.

But the number of immigrants placed in ICE custody was about the same for those two months. That's because while arrests made by ICE have surged under Trump, arrests made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection have plummeted.

With the long lines of migrants along the Southern Border now gone, the Department of Homeland Security is now focused on undocumented immigrants who crossed the border long ago.

Immigration Attorney Meredith Brown says more than 40 of her clients this month received documents filed by a DHS attorney requesting a judge to get them back in court. In other words, a judge sidelined their cases long ago, and now, DHS wants them put back on a court calendar.

It comes as ICE agents have been detaining people across the country after their immigration hearings.

"I am getting calls from people that are terrified," Brown said. "I think that these motions to put them before an immigration judge isn't to help them. I think it is to expedite removals and get the numbers up."

While immigration attorneys are deeply concerned about this, DHS says it is restoring law and order and making communities safer.

Eyewitness News reached out to both ICE and the National ICE Officers Association, but never heard back.