The Biden administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities carried out 142,580 deportations in fiscal year 2023, when Border Patrol recorded more than 2 million migrants crossing the southern border illegally, according to an agency report released Friday.
There were 69,902 deportees who had charges or convictions for criminal activity, 3,406 who were known or suspected gang members, 139 who were known or suspected terrorists, six human rights violators and 108 were foreign fugitives, according to the report. ICE deported 72,117 noncitizens in fiscal year 2022, 59,011 in fiscal year 2021, 185,884 in fiscal year 2020, 267,258
in fiscal year 2019 and 256,085 in fiscal year 2018, according to ICE statistics.
While conducting low numbers of removals compared to border encounters, ICE had 6 million illegal migrants that have been released into the country and are being monitored by the agency, according to the report. More than 1.2 million of those individuals have final orders of removal from the country.
“ICE continues to disrupt transnational criminal organizations, remove threats to national security and public safety, uphold the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and collaborate with colleagues across government and law enforcement in pursuit of our mission to keep U.S. communities safe,” Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Patrick J. Leichleitner said in a statement Friday.
“I am proud of the efforts of our more than 20,000-strong workforce who work every day to achieve their mission while also assisting homeland security and law enforcement partners with integrity, courage and excellence,” he said.
The Biden administration limited ICE’s abilities to conduct law enforcement duties, saying arrests and deportations should only be carried out when dealing with cases deemed as threats to national security, public safety and border security in order to “preserve limited government resources.”
“The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a September 2021 agency memo about the limits.
The restrictions have become frustrating for rank-and-file ICE officers trying to do their jobs, agency officials have told the DCNF.
“It sucks,” one ICE official previously told the DCNF of the Biden administration’s policy, adding that “the priorities restrict the ability to conduct enforcement actions, including illegal [aliens] with DUIs and misdemeanor convictions.”
Jennie Taeron December 29, 2023
