FBI and Homeland Security raid office of Sanctuary City's star immigration attorney who bragged about 'Crimmigration' expertise - as Trump deports hundreds of illegals

Homeland Security officers and federal agents raided the office of an immigration attorney who focused on 'crimmigration' on Thursday, just days after President Donald Trump took office and began to crack down on illegal immigration.

Federal agents were seen carting away evidence from the law offices of Joseph Molina Flynn in building on Dorrance Street in downtown Providence, Rhode Island - a sanctuary city.

Videos posted online showed officers taking boxes of files and loading them into the scores of black SUVs and police vehicles parked outside.

An FBI spokesperson would only confirm to The Providence Journal that the agency was 'conducting court-authorized activity' at the building.

But two people with knowledge of the investigation told WPRI that the federal agents were looking into Flynn over allegations that he defrauded his clients seeking representation on immigration-related matters.

They said the raid was unrelated to Trump's crackdown on sanctuary cities like Providence. But the federal action came as Trump began his mass deportation program, ousting hundreds of illegals immigrants from the country. 

Flynn - a native of Colombia who has bragged about his expertise in a field he dubbed 'crimmigration' - had not been charged with any wrongdoing as of Thursday evening. 

But shortly after news of the raid broke, the mayor of nearby city Central Falls announced that Flynn had resigned from his role as a municipal court judge there.

'I was deeply concerned to see the reports of an FBI search at the law office of Joseph Molina Flynn,' Mayor Maria Rivera said in a statement.

'As the Central Falls community knows, transparency and accountability are priorities of mine,' she continued. 'In an effort to uphold the integrity and focus of the municipal court, Judge Molina Flynn has officially resigned his position.'

Municipal Court Associate Judge Robert McConnell will fill in temporarily until Flynn's position is filled. 

Flynn was the first openly gay person and first formerly undocumented migrant to serve on the bench in Central Falls in 2021.

He had come to the United States from Colombia when he was just nine years old, following the arrival of his family members.

The judge was on a visitors' visa, which he overstayed, living undocumented for 15 years before he obtained his lawful permanent resident status, Fox News reports.

He had previously recounted how he was excited to arrive in the United States and felt an 'overwhelming sense of peace' after leaving a homeland plagued by violence.

When he entered school, Flynn said he wasn't able to say much beyond 'What?' causing all the other children in his class to burst into laughter. 

'I became determined that they wouldn't laugh again and I'd learn to speak English.' 

Flynn went on to graduate summa cum laude from Johnson & Wales University with a bachelor of science in accounting.

He obtained a juris doctor from the University of Michigan Law School, and founded Molina Flynn Law Offices in 2015 as a solo practice, focusing on immigration, family and criminal matters.

Flynn was also an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University Law School where he taught about the intersectionality between crime and immigration - what he called 'Crimmigration.'

The raid came as officials in Providence were seeking to delay the passage of an ordinance that would codify protections for undocumented migrants, according to The Public's Radio. 

Among the changes the city was going to implement were amendments that prohibit local law enforcement from 'proactively' providing federal law enforcement agents with information that could lead to the arrest of anyone who is in the country without documentation when agents don't have a judicial warrant.

Police would still be able to offer information about any illegal immigrants who committed felonies, but the amended language would prohibit people who run schools, places of worship, health facilities and courts from allowing immigration officials onto their property without a judicial warrant.

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee also said the state would not prosecute immigrants who do not have documentation unless they have also committed a crime. 

But after Trump took office on Monday, he directed federal prosecutors to investigate any state or city officials who resist immigration enforcement efforts.  

The directive states that, 'Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing or otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests.'

It suggests that anyone who disobeys the law could face criminal prosecution.

A sweep of sanctuary cities on Tuesday led to the arrest of over 300 illegal migrants, with immigration officials arresting over 1,300 migrants in the early days of his presidency.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on X they have also lodged a further 373 deportation detainers - requests to local police forces to hold arrested individuals until ICE can pick them up - since Trump took back power.

Of the 1,300 migrants arrested thus far, 'over 1,000 of them were criminals,' border czar Tom Homan told NewsNation on Thursday night.