What’s New
Deportations of illegal immigrants from the United States hit a 10-year high in 2024, following a surge in southwest border crossings during the first years of President Joe Bidens term in the White House.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released its annual report Thursday, looking back at its work in fiscal year 2024, which ran from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024.
Why It Matters
The figures come a month before Biden is set to leave office, following a presidential term marked by record-high illegal border crossings, criticisms of policies seeking to protect immigrants, and a failed attempt by Congress to pass lasting reforms to a system which is widely acknowledged as outdated and under strain.
The incoming President-elect, Donald Trump, has promised to enact mass deportations during his second term of at least 11 million undocumented migrants, so he would need to work to beat ICE’s 2024 record.
What To Know
Among the statistics on targeting migrant criminals and stopping drug and arms trafficking were the latest deportation figures, which showed 271,484 people were removed – the highest since 2015.
ICE said it was able to remove 90 percent more people who had no legal basis to be in the U.S. in 2024 compared to last year (142,580) because of new agreements across the country which enabled faster removal flights, as well as successful negotiations with other countries on accepting returned citizens.
While a sizable percentage of those removed had criminal convictions or pending charges, around 32.7 percent, most were categorized as “Other Immigration Violator”, or those simply with no legal right to remain.
This matches up with an increase in activity at the U.S.-Mexico border, which has become a greater source of deportees than from elsewhere in the country over Biden’s presidency. 223,752 people removed by ICE in 2024 were originally arrested by the border patrol, compared to the 47,732 arrested away from the border.
In releasing its report, ICE said it had prioritized enforcement resources by arresting noncitizens with criminal convictions or pending charges. Out of the 113,431 people ICE arrested in 2024, 71.7 percent fell within that category, compared to 43 percent of 2023’s 170,590 arrests.
Among those deported were 3,706 known or suspected gang members, the highest number since 2020, including those known to be part of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
The agency also seized more than 1.6 million pounds of narcotics and assisted more than 800 victims of human trafficking.
While Biden has dramatically ramped up deportations during his term compared to Trump’s, he has also faced unprecedented levels of migration into the country, and it is the latter that Republicans have focused on. Trump and his “border czar” Tom Homan have promised to go after more migrant criminals who are living across the U.S., but this will only be possible if agencies like ICE have the resources.
What People Are Saying
ICE deputy director Patrick J Lechleitner in the report: “Throughout the year, the agency was called on to do more without commensurate funding, working within the confines of strained resources and competing priorities while steadfastly supporting the Department of Homeland Security and its component agencies in their efforts to secure the border.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, on X: “Biden is carrying out an extensive crackdown at the border that has juiced border removals to their highest levels in a decade — more than Trump ever did. But in the interior, ICE enforcement is currently running at the lowest level it’s been in decades. It’s a stark contrast.”
Tom Homan, in an interview with CNN Thursday: “We want to arrest as many people as we can that are in the country illegally. If you’re here illegally, you’re not off the table. It’s a violation of the law; it’s a crime to enter this country illegally.”
What’s Next
The ICE report outlined a need for greater funding, to cover increased staffing costs and capabilities, after a long period of stagnant staffing levels and a lack of help from Congress. If Trump wishes to increase deportations further, he will need help from those on Capitol Hill to fund them.
The post Deportations Hit Highest Level in Decade As Biden Leaves Office appeared first on Newsweek.
