San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
DEPORTATIONS OF MIGRANTS RISE TO MORE THAN 142,000 UNDER BIDEN
High number of arrivals at border cause of upswing
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported more than 142,000 immigrants in fiscal year 2023, nearly double the number from the year before, as the Biden administration ramped up enforcement to stem illegal border crossings, according to the agency’s annual report, published Friday.
Nearly 18,000 of those deported were parents and children traveling as family units, surpassing the 14,400 removed under the Trump administration in fiscal 2020.
Federal officials said the removals adhered to the Biden administration’s enforcement strategy, which the Supreme Court upheld in June. Migrants who cross the border illegally and those who commit violent crimes or otherwise pose a safety threat are priorities for removal. The ICE report covered the period from Oct. 1, 2022, to Sept. 30.
The increase in deportations is more a reflection of the high numbers of migrants arriving at the U.s.mexico border than interior enforcement, which Biden has discouraged in most cases.
“ICE continues to disrupt transnational criminal organizations, remove threats to national security and public safety, uphold the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and collaborate with colleagues across government and law enforcement in pursuit of our mission to keep U.S. communities safe,” said ICE Deputy Director Patrick J. Lechleitner
in a statement.
Just 2,500 of the 72,000 non-criminals deported from the United States in fiscal 2023 were in the interior of the country, where dozens of sanctuary cities and
towns have passed ordinances seeking to limit ICE from detaining migrants. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in 2021 that being undocumented should not be the sole basis for removing someone from the country.
President Biden took office promising to create a more humane immigration system, and he attempted to pause deportations temporarily in the hope that Congress would create a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
But that hope faded amid fierce resistance from Republicans and public disapproval of the record number of border apprehensions, which surpassed 2 million for the first time in 2022 and is expected to do so again this year.
The Biden administration nonetheless has sharply reduced interior enforcement, halting workplace immigration raids and sparing most undocumented immigrants from being deported.
Officials also stopped detaining families in Ice-run facilities.
But officials have also warned migrants against hiring smugglers to take them on a dangerous journey north to the U.s.-mexico border and have said people who breach the border would face penalties. Officials have reinstituted removals to countries such as Venezuela and have publicized deportations as a signal to migrants that the government will enforce immigration laws.
ICE’S workload has swelled under Biden. The number of migrants on the deportation docket has risen from 2.6 million in fiscal 2018 to about 6.2 million last fiscal year. The agency has approximately 6,000 immigration officers.