Immigration officers arrested four people in the Park City area Friday. Park City Police Chief Wade Carpenter says the arrests were made by Enforcement Removal Operation officers, who are part of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE. Carpenter said the Park City Police Department had nothing to do with the arrests. He added that he spoke to the Summit County Sheriff's Office and the Utah Attorney General's office, and those agencies didn't know of the arrests either. Carpenter said the Enforcement Removal Operation is a specific task force in the Department of Homeland Security that deals with "targeted" individuals, meaning people who have prior criminal history, have been deported before, or both. Carpenter doesn't know who the four people are who were arrested or where they were apprehended. He also stressed that the Park City Police Department was not involved in the arrests, and that the immigration officials were focused on specific people, not conducting any kind of raid or sweeps or roundups. The police chief said he has heard concerns in the immigrant community about raids and roundups, but to his knowledge that is not happening. Summit County Sheriff Justin Martinez also told KPCW that he is not aware of any such law enforcement efforts. Heber City Police Sergeant Salvador Segura also said he was not aware of any ICE activity in Heber City. ICE spokeswoman Rose Richeson said in an email that Friday's arrests were not "uncommon." She sent KPCW the following statement: "Our deportation officers conduct targeted enforcement operations every day in locations around the country as part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to protect the nation, uphold public safety and protect the integrity of our immigration laws and border controls. These operations involve existing, established Fugitive Operations Teams. ICE does not conduct sweeps, checkpoints or raids that target aliens indiscriminately."
KPCW asked if that meant there were no operations, other than every day activities, happening in either Summit County or Wasatch County. Richeson responded: "Correct. I'm not aware of any expanded immigration enforcement actions recently conducted in the Park City area."
