According to reporting by the L.A. Times, the White House — under enormous pressure to be tougher on immigration — – has pushed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to toughen their approach by deporting more illegal immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security is yet to act on this directive.
As more than 200,000 illegal immigrants cross the Southern border every month for the last five months, the Biden administration has been forced to act.
Republicans have been the most vocal critics of Biden’s policy choices, which included rolling back Trump’s border policies and narrowing the scope for ICE deportations and arrests.
In 2021’s fiscal year, ICE arrested 74,082 noncitizens and deported only 59,011; these figures are down considerably from 2020 when ICE arrested 103,603 noncitizens and deported 185,884, and an even greater decline from 2019 when ICE arrested 143,099 and deported 267,258 noncitizens.
On Friday (August 19), when the L.A. Times released its report, it revealed that under political pressure, White House officials pushed ICE to deport more illegal immigrants in a “detained docket.” The docket focuses on immigrants recently crossing as part of a family unit.
After launching in May 2021, more than 60,000 illegal immigrants have been entered in the docket, but only 150 have been deported.
The L.A. Times also reported that in March, DHS officials outlined a strategy to deport more illegal Migrants; the strategy included detaining migrants in a hotel, fining migrants who didn’t leave, or detaining migrants for 48 hours.
But, according to internal records obtained by the outlet, the DHS hadn’t increased its deportation of families citing poor optics but was still under pressure from the White House.
