U.S. interior immigration arrests fell despite Trump push
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[December 11, 2019]
By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Non-border
immigration arrests in the United States fell by 10 percent in the year
to September from a year earlier, the latest U.S. data shows, a drop the
head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said was partly due to
the diversion of the agency's resources to the border.
The figures were included in an annual ICE enforcement report reviewed
by Reuters and set to be released on Wednesday.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, acting ICE Director Matthew
Albence said efforts to arrest immigrants inside the United States were
hampered by a surge of mostly Central American families and children
arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this year, which diverted the
agency's resources.
Albence said 350 of the agency's more than 20,000 employees were
reassigned to deal with the border crisis at various times during the
last year. Additionally, he said the arrival of hundreds of thousands of
migrants meant an increased workload in detention centers and in the
field.
"Simply put, there are only so many resources to go around," Albence
said. "We’ve had some places where, for months at a time, fugitive
operations teams were shut down."
Albence also attributed the lower arrest totals to a lack of cooperation
from so-called "sanctuary" jurisdictions that don't honor the agency's
requests to hold immigrants booked into local jails.
"It’s compounded by jurisdictions not cooperating with us," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump has made immigration enforcement a central
focus of his presidency and reelection campaign. He tweeted in June that
immigration authorities would begin to deport "millions of illegal
aliens" without legal status.
U.S. immigration officers arrested approximately 143,000 immigrants in
fiscal 2019, which ended Sept. 30, down from nearly 159,000 arrests a
year earlier, according to the report.
For a graphic on Trump immigration enforcement lags behind Obama,
[to top of second column]
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![](../images/121119pics/news_c5.jpg)
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers from Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) look on after executing search warrants
and making some arrests at an agricultural processing facility in
Canton, Mississippi, U.S. in this August 7, 2019 handout photo.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Handout via REUTERS
![](../images/ads/current/fitzpatrick_lda_SPONSOR_2017.png)
Under former President Barack Obama, ICE focused its arrest efforts
on immigrants with criminal convictions. In fiscal year 2016 - the
last full year under Obama - 86 percent of those arrested by ICE had
criminal convictions. Approximately 110,000 immigrants were arrested
by ICE that year.
However, Trump issued an executive order shortly after taking office
that moved away from the Obama-era prioritization of criminal cases.
Of the total ICE arrests last year, only 64 percent of those picked
up had been convicted of crimes. Driving under the influence,
traffic offenses, drug crimes and immigration violations made up
more than half of all convictions.
Albence addressed the possibility that his agency soon may need to
grapple with enforcement against immigrants brought to the country
as children and offered deportation relief and work permits through
the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule next year over Trump's attempt
to phase out the program.
Albence said DACA enrollees ordered removed by an immigration judge
"certainly" would be subject to deportation.
"They’re here illegally," he said. "DACA isn’t a status."
(Reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Lincoln
Feast.)
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