The documents also state that the Charlotte agents were prepared to work weekends at local jails in order to identify criminal aliens arrested who normally would be released before agents returned to work on Monday.

“This could net approximately 50-100 additional criminal arrests or more, based on frequency,” the plan states.

In Raleigh, immigration officials suggested vetting gangs known to have high foreign-born memberships, such as MS-13. Probation records for foreign-born offenders should be reviewed, according to the proposal. It also noted that legislative changes in 2006 made it harder for illegal immigrants in North Carolina to get driver’s licenses. It suggested vetting denied license renewals for potential criminal illegal immigrants.

“Cooperating with DMV to identify all denied license renewal applications (due to lacking proof of residency) would provide a significant foreign-born target base which could be vetted further to identify those with prior criminal convictions,” the plan stated.

Headquarters also approved adding fugitive operations teams in Columbia, S.C., and Macon, Ga.

“We believe that there are a significant number of criminal alien fugitive and re-entry targets in the Columbia, South Carolina area,” the plan stated. “. . . We currently lack the manpower to give this area the attention it deserves.”

Ron Woodard, who leads the enforcement advocacy group N.C. Listen, welcomed the increased enforcement methods but questioned the motivations, noting the Obama administration has been cutting enforcement for the past several years.

“You can’t have, in my humble opinion, a government in which we obey the laws we like and sort of don’t obey the laws we don’t like,” he said.

Critics charge methods, such as traffic stops and reviewing applications for driver’s licenses, don’t reflect the priorities of targeting dangerous criminals.

“They’re casting a net and scooping up everyone in it,” said Rafael Prieto Zartha, an editor and columnist for Que Pasa-Mi Gente, a Spanish-language newspaper in Charlotte. “They’re lobbying prosecutors to convict more undocumented immigrants.”

The American Civil Liberties Union obtained the emails under the Freedom of Information Act as part of an investigation into the May 2012 traffic checkpoint near Asheville, N.C., in which immigration agents arrested 15 immigrants, including many for minor convictions. The documents were first published by USA Today.

It’s unclear how many of these activities proposed in the emails were implemented and how many arrests they yielded. ICE officials said that not all programs detailed in the eight-page plan were implemented, including working with Division of Motor Vehicles officials to review North Carolina driver’s licenses applications.

ICE did end up meeting and surpassing its goals for removal of criminal illegal immigrants. The United States deported a record 225,390 convicted criminal illegal immigrants in fiscal 2012, exceeding its target of 210,000.