In a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued report released Wednesday, the Trump administration’s push to remove all undocumented immigrants has resulted in a 40 percent increase in immigration arrests, particularly among those with no criminal record. Since the presidential executive order, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have arrested more than 41,000 immigrants since January, amounting to an average of 400 arrests per day.
“These statistics reflect President Trump’s commitment to enforce our immigration laws fairly and across the board. ICE agents and officers have been given clear direction to focus on threats to public safety and national security, which has resulted in a substantial increase in the arrest of convicted criminal aliens,” said ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan in a statement.
During the same period under the Obama administration, only 30,028 immigration arrests were made, making today’s numbers a 37% increase. Despite the administration’s claim the immigration crackdown is targeting criminal undocumented immigrants, results show the largest spike in immigration arrests has been among those with no criminal records.
“Fewer than 10 percent of criminal arrests were because of violent crimes, so ICE isn’t prioritizing its operations. Six thousand more immigrants without criminal records were arrested this year — their suffering families and separated children are casualties of Trump’s mass deportation agenda,” said Chris Rickerd, a policy counsel at the ACLU.
Immigration arrests from January to April 2016 were lower than 2017, however, 92 percent of those arrested had criminal records as opposed to the 75% with criminal records under Trump. ICE officials maintain they are making no delineation between criminals and non-criminals, and as Secretary Kelly has made clear, they will no longer exempt anyone in violation of immigration laws.
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