Promises Aside, Deportations Under Trump Dropped This Year
December 12, 2019, 5:17 AM PST
WASHINGTON — Arrests and deportations of unauthorized immigrants away from the U.S. border dropped this past year, according to government data released Wednesday, a sharp contrast to the “millions” of deportations that President Donald Trump promised this summer.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested about 143,000 immigrants in the country’s interior between October 2018 and September 2019, 10% fewer than they did the previous fiscal year. That’s the lowest level of arrests since Trump took office, ICE officials said Wednesday.
Deportations from the interior also declined 10%, from 95,360 to 85,958.
Matthew Albence, the acting director of ICE, attributed the declines in enforcement to the reallocation of resources to the border with Mexico, where a surge in asylum-seeking migrants has taxed federal resources. In May, authorities arrested more than 144,000 migrants at the border, the highest monthly total in more than a decade.
just saying!