Immigration agents carried out raids across Southwest Florida neighbourhoods on Wednesday, including one at Madison Avenue in Fort Myers before eight in the morning, and the agency has not said how many people it took into custody

Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out raids in Southwest Florida neighbourhoods on Wednesday and detained dozens of people, Gulf Coast News reports.

The Fort Myers newsroom had a crew at one of the scenes. It reports a raid early on Wednesday morning at the junction of Madison Avenue and Alderman Street, off Palm Beach Boulevard in Fort Myers. In an earlier report from the same scene, the outlet said its crew arrived shortly after 7.30 a.m. and saw Florida Highway Patrol troopers and vehicles, and that a member of the group ICE Observers who was present said the operation was an ICE investigation. That scene has since cleared.

No official count, and no release

ICE has not disclosed how many people were detained, according to Gulf Coast News.

The Department of Homeland Security told the outlet that it conducts law enforcement activity across the country every day and that it does not discuss ongoing or future operations. The outlet reports that ICE provided images of five men in custody and described them as having prior arrests. That is the agency's characterisation of those men, and no criminal charge against any of them has been announced by the authority that would file one.

This desk checked the ICE newsroom at 5.35 on Wednesday evening. It carried no release about a Southwest Florida operation, or about Florida at all. So there is no government document behind this item, and what follows is the outlet's reporting from the scene rather than an official account.

What residents told the outlet

Ana Hernandez, who lives in the area, told Gulf Coast News she woke to masked agents, armoured vehicles and rifles in her neighbourhood, and said people there wake up thinking about being stopped and that they work hard.

Hillary Hogue, who recorded one arrest, told the outlet she disputes that the people taken were criminals, and said the family of the man she watched being detained is unlikely to know where he is for some time. Liz Schelper, who said she saw several arrests, described what she watched to the outlet as people being picked up and driven off quickly.

Indera DeMine, an immigration lawyer, told Gulf Coast News that people are being detained in large numbers in Southwest Florida and that the volume of cases is straining the courts, including in Miami.

The outlet reports that some residents wrote to it in support of the operation, and that none of them agreed to be interviewed.

It is not over

Gulf Coast News reports that agents are expected to keep making arrests into Friday, citing multiple sources.

No agency has published a list of the locations involved, so a report of activity in one neighbourhood says nothing about any other street. If you are trying to establish where a specific person has been taken, the outlet's reporting does not answer that, and neither does anything published by ICE today.