ICE arrests plummeted under Biden guidance
Washington DC Dec 2 2021 ICE authorized just 20,858 arrests in the six months after the Biden administration announced new rules restricting which illegal immigrants could be targeted — or an average of just one arrest every two months for each deportation officer.
That’s down exponentially from the Trump years, when the rate averaged two arrests each month, and it’s even worse compared to the peak Obama years, when the ratio was about four arrests each month.
But even though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it’s catching fewer people overall, it’s arresting more aggravated felons, which ICE says is proof the new rules are working to allow officers to focus on the most valuable targets.
In 5½ months after the Feb. 18 issuance of the new rules, ICE recorded 6,046 arrests of aggravated felons, compared to 3,575 during the pandemic-stricken 2020.
The government revealed the numbers in a court filing earlier this month as it sought to defend the new “priorities” guidance laying out guardrails on which immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally should be arrested or deported by federal officers
