ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons answers ABC7 questions about immigration raids in SoCal

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- As Eyewitness News continues seeking answers about the immigration raids in SoCal, on Wednesday, ABC7's Marc Brown asked the acting director of ICE the tough questions.

ICE agents have arrested more than a thousand people in Southern California since last Friday, the agency's interim director, Todd Lyons, said. The Trump administration has reportedly given ICE a nationwide target of 3,000 arrests a day.

"To put a quota on anything, I wouldn't say that -- I would say there are goals, measuring goals, metrics, like any agency, but we don't have a quota... we're more focused on our achievements of being able to highlight what we're exactly doing dialy when it comes to the worst of the worst," Lyons said.

The worst of the worst -- the administration says this is an effor to rid the country of undocumented violent criminals. But ICE's tactics are calling that into question.

"We are seeing ICE agents chasing farmworkers. We are seeing ICE agents at Home Depot parking lots, car washes, restaurants. Are these violent people?" asked Brown.

"I can tell you that under this administration, the entire portfolio of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is open. We no longer turn a blind eye to someone who is here in the country illegally," said Lyons.

"And in terms of the car washes and the vegetable fields, are you finding MS-13 gang members there?" asked Brown.

"We have found gang members, we have found convicted criminals there at the locations. But we've also found people that are conducting ID fraud, tax evasion," Lyons said.

Lyons didn't provide numbers, but the agency's own data shows fewer than 10% of the immigrants ICE agents have taken into custody have serious or violent criminal convictions. The rest have either immigration or traffic violations.

ICE has not said whether there were any violent felons at an immigration raid on Tuesday in Pico Rivera. ICE agents and border patrol officers, carrying assault rifles and wearing face masks, arrested day laborers, a grocery store janitor and the driver of a taco truck.

Lyons was also asked why his agents cover their faces. He said it's for their safety.

"When their addresses are being posted, when there's online death threats against their wives and children, I am not gonna stand for that. And if covering their faces is one way to do it, then absolutely," Lyons said.

And what about the people who are detained? Families of detainees have been unable to reach them and are asking where they have been sent.

"One of our main detention centers is up in Adelanto, California. However, that's almost at capacity, so we have to rely on other areas and other detention centers where we can place individuals."

"Is anybody from Southern California being taken out of state?" asked Brown.

"I don't have that data in front of me, but I can get that for you," Lyons said.

"It just really depends on if we have space available at Adelanto, which we like to do, because we like to keep people at the same venue where they're arrested, so they have access to their legal teams, families, etc. But if we don't have the available space, which is one issue that we constantly deal with immigration enforcement, we do have to find locations elsewhere in the country," added Lyons.

Lyons also said that the conditions inside Adelanto, which many, including elected lawmakers, have questioned, have not been brought to his attention.