The United States Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to more than 32,800 irregular immigrants in the first 50 days of Donald Trump’s administration. The figure, announced by the Department of National Security and ICE on Wednesday, puts the Government of the Republican on the way to exceed the arrests made last fiscal year under the presidency of Joe Biden. Although the officials did not provide updated data on the total deportations that have been carried out – which were below Biden’s averages during the first weeks of the tycoon’s mandate – did reveal that they and pressed the Congress to obtain more funds.
Between January 20 and March 10, immigration officials arrested 14,111 convicted criminals already 9,980 immigrants with pending criminal charges, according to ICE. The remaining 8,718 were “infringers of immigration laws.” “They violated the United States Immigration Law, which is also a crime,” said ICE functions, Todd Lyons, in a call with journalists, according to ABC News. Of the total, 1,155 were alleged members of bands and 44 foreign fugitives.
In comparison, under the Biden government there were 113,400 arrests throughout the fiscal year 2024 ,.
“I want to be clear that ICE arrests in the first 50 days of President Trump’s administration are surpassing those under the Biden administration,” Lyons said. “Duplicating the arrests of the ICE is just the beginning. We hope that the figures of arrests and expulsions from ICE will increase as it gives free to an agency that has had the hands tied behind the last four years. These operations of application of the ICE law are not only expelling criminals from US communities, but also deter people from coming to our country, ”he added.
The increase in arrests has filled the detention centers to the stops: the agency currently has 47,600 detainees, despite being financed to house an average of 41,500. The ICE is expanding its number of beds with the support of the Department of Defense, the United States Sheriff Service and the Prison Office, but urges Congress – a republican majority – to give them more funds to increase the available space. The border tsar, Tom Homan, said in December that the administration would need at least 100,000 beds for its mass deportation campaign.
The increase in the number of arrests does not necessarily imply an increase in expulsions. The latest data, released at the end of February, show that the Republican government, 35% less than the monthly average recorded in the last year of Biden’s mandate. The data frustrated Trump and caused the dismissal of the then acting director of the ICE, who.
“We have returned to ICE to its main mission, which is to stop people who violate our immigration law,” Lyons said on Wednesday. He argued that together with the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem is “changing the ICE culture to an action and responsibility.”
