US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, along with state law enforcement officials, arrested about 780 immigrants in Florida in an operation last week.

The New York Times is reporting that the four-day operation came as the Trump administration has sought to enlist local authorities in an immigration crackdown. The operation began last Monday,  targeting undocumented immigrants with final deportation orders, according to an ICE official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The officers picked up more than 275 migrants with final removal orders, the data showed. ABC News and Fox News earlier reported news of the arrests, which took place over four days.

Accelerate deportations 

It was the latest move by the Trump administration to seek to accelerate deportations of undocumented immigrants, which have so far been well below the administration’s goals. Since President Trump took office, ICE officials have worked with various federal agencies to conduct raids across the United States. 

The effort in Florida last week was the first to be conducted as part of a formal arrangement with state law enforcement known as a 287(g) agreement, according to the official. The Trump administration has sought to recruit local authorities to help in immigration operations in an effort to speed deportations. 

The administration has resumed collateral arrests during such operations, which allows officers to pick up migrants who were not initially targeted but were around an individual who was sought by ICE. Generally, people must have received an order of removal from an immigration judge before they are deported, a process that can take weeks or stretch into years. 

Tessa Petit, the executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, noted that given the scale of the operation, there is a chance that many of those arrested were in the country on some sort of legal status and did not possess criminal records. The raids represented the biggest escalation of immigration enforcement in Florida since Trump took office, Ms. Petit said, adding that they were much more reflective of the president’s mass deportation promises.

ICE operations in communities take an extensive amount of research and surveillance. They also require many officers, which is why the Trump administration has pulled in several other law enforcement agencies. Trump administration officials have increasingly turned to warning undocumented immigrants to leave the country.

“President Trump and I have a clear message to those in our country illegally: LEAVE NOW,” declared Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in a statement on Monday. “If you do not self-deport, we will hunt you down, arrest you and deport you.”