On January 26, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 1,179 illegal immigrants across the United States. Only around 52% (613) of those detained were criminal arrests. This follows the ten executive orders signed by President Donald Trump during his first week in office regarding immigration and mass deportation.
More arrests on Trump’s orders
With the daily number of arrests from January 23 to 27 averaging at 710, the United States has faced more immigration arrests than ever before in the first few weeks following Trump’s inauguration. Contrastingly, under the Biden administration, the mean number of daily immigration arrests within a 12-month period was 311. If the current trend continues, it will surpass the first Trump administration, which recorded 376 daily immigration arrests.
The new Trump administration employed other agencies to assist ICE in making the arrests. This includes institutions under the Justice Department, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Military planes have also been employed as removal flights, something never seen in United States history. Moreover, Trump has strongly pressured governments that refuse to take back their citizens on these removal flights. For example, on January 28, Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Colombia by 25% after President Petro refused to allow two military planes carrying deportees to land.
Who is being arrested
The arrest priorities have now expanded to anyone residing illegally in the country. Previously, enforcement focused on people with criminal convictions, public safety or national security threats, and migrants stopped at the border. Now, even those who were granted parole can be deported regardless of whether they entered the country legally.
It is important to note that being undocumented is a civil offense, not a crime. It is only considered a crime if a previously deported person re-enters the United States without permission. So far, no information has been disclosed regarding how many of the immigration arrests under the Trump administration were due to illegal re-entry after deportation.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told NBC News on January 26 that “We want to get as many criminals as possible. They’re a public safety threat, and so with somebody else illegally here, they’re coming, too.” Homan also acknowledged that there were “at least a few collateral arrests”, and that these are expected to continue as “immigration enforcement actions escalate.”
Other policies
Trump’s recent executive orders have not only established new policies, but have also ended multiple ones, especially regarding immigration arrests. For instance, now, immigration authorities no longer have to avoid arrests at “sensitive locations”, including schools, hospitals, and places of worship.
The CBP One App, an application that allowed migrants to enter the United States on two year permits with work eligibility, has been shut down.
Trump also ended a policy that allowed more than 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to fly to the country on two year permits if they had a financial sponsor.
In Donald Trump’s inauguration, he promised to deport “millions and millions” of immigrants. To reach that goal, the Trump administration would need to deport approximately 2,700 immigrants everyday to reach a million within a year. It must be highlighted, nevertheless, that arrests do not guarantee detentions, much less deportations.
