Arrests of illegal immigrants up more than 40 percent in 2017

Ryan Pickrell, DCNF

Arrests of illegal immigrants skyrocketed during President Donald Trump’s first year in office, according to new data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In 2017, “Our brave [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers arrested more than 100,000 criminal aliens who have committed tens of thousands of crimes,” Trump announced at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday. The official numbers dropped the same day, revealing a marked increase over the final year of former President Barack Obama’s administration.

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) — AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Authorities arrested 155,000 illegal immigrants in 2017, a 41 percent increase over the figure from the previous year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed, according to CNN. As the Trump administration has eliminated the Obama-era policies that restricted deportation arrests to only those illegals who pose a threat to public safety, the agency is able to cast a wider net and detain foreign individuals who have not been convicted of a crime other than illegal entry into the country.

There were a total of 39,174 deportation arrests from October to December in 2017. The number of arrests of illegal immigrants facing criminal charges surged 14 percent, jumping from 22,484 to 25,626. Arrests of individuals without criminal records roughly tripled, increasing from 4,918 to 13,548, The Associated Press reported.

For the year, the number of arrests of convicted criminals were up 17 percent, while arrests of so-called “non-criminals” increased by 171 percent.

In this Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017, photo released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows foreign nationals being arrested this week during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens in Los Angeles. Immigrant advocates on Friday, Feb. 10, 2017, decried a series of arrests that federal deportation agents said aimed to round up criminals in Southern California but they believe mark a shift in enforcement under the Trump administration. (Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP) — (Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP)

Arrests are up, yet deportations are down. The Trump administration deported around 215,000 illegal immigrants, down 13 percent from the 250,000 deported in the final year of the Obama administration.

The Trump administration has attempted to reform the immigration system to ensure that American citizens are protected, but the president’s plans have been met by significant resistance. Trump wants a border wall to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. by way of America’s southern border, as well as an end to chain migration and the diversity visa lottery, all of which have allowed criminals with violent intentions to enter the U.S.

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