Trump Administration Continues to Expand Interior Immigration Enforcement

Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released areport detailing deportations (henceforth “removals”) conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during fiscal year 2018.  This post present data on removals in historical context – combined with information fromPew and theCenter for Migration Studies on the number of illegal immigrants present in the United States.ICE deported 95,360 illegal immigrants from the  interior of the United States in 2018, up from 81,603 in 2017.  Removals from the interior peaked during the Obama administration in 2011 at 237,941 (Figure 1).  The Trump administration would have to increase the pace of interior removals dramatically to reach Obama’s previous peak.  Unless something dramatic changes, that won’t happen aslocal law enforcement agencies are much less likely to cooperate with President Trump ’s ICE than they were with President Obama’s ICE.   ICE also removes large numbers of illegal immigrants apprehended at the border.  Since 2012, border removals have outnumbered those from the interior of the United States. Figure 1Interior and Border Removals by ICE, 2008-2018Source: Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Obama administration removed 1,242,486 from the  interior of the United States during its full eight years, averaging 155,311 removals per year.  Data from the earlier Bush administration are morespeculative, but they show an increase in deportations during the last half of Bush ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs