US immigration arrests drop amid focus on most dangerous

WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigration enforcement arrests within the United States fell sharply over the past year as the Biden administration shifted its enforcement priorities to focus on people in the country without legal status who have committed serious crimes, officials said Friday.

As it released its annual report, reflecting eight months under President Joe Biden, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said immigration arrests dropped nearly 40% from the previous year while the number of people apprehended who had committed “aggravated felonies” nearly doubled.

Total deportations fell to the lowest in the agency's history, down nearly 70% to 59,011, a number that, in part, reflects use of a public health order implemented during the pandemic to expel people without formal deportation proceedings.

Officials portray this strategy as an efficient use of limited law enforcement resources, but it puts the administration in a bind between critics, primarily on the right, who want to see more apprehensions and progressive Democrats who have called for dramatically scaling back the mission of ICE or even eliminating it altogether.

At a minimum, it also reflects a departure from the strategy pursued under former President Donald Trump, who early on directed ICE to apprehend anyone who was in the country illegally regardless of other circumstances.

Critics say the Biden administration's enforcement policy encourages the irregular migration that a succession of US presidents have struggled to control.

“The Biden administration has turned the United States into a sanctuary country, plain and simple,” said Mark Morgan, who was acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection under Trump and is now with the Heritage Foundation.

“This president has sent a message to the world that if you illegally cross our sovereign border, you will likely be released into the interior of the United States, and once you're here, immigration officials are not allowed to remove you even if you skip your court date or commit a crime.”

But in what officials call a “rebalanced” approach, ICE said its Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations arrested 74,082 non-citizens, a combination of people referred to the agency by Customs and Border Protection and people detained at large in the country.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.