Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

ICE Has Increased Enforcement Since Trump Left Office

by June 20, 2023
June 20, 2023

David J. Bier

President Biden has received significant criticism from people who want to see more immigration enforcement for supposedly “gutting” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While most measures of ICE enforcement remained below pre‐​pandemic levels, they also have almost uniformly increased since President Biden took office in January 2021, recovering from significant declines under the Trump administration in 2020.

More Immigrants Deported

Figure 1 shows the monthly number of “removals” (occurring under Title 8 immigration code) and expulsions (occurring under the Title 42 health code before it was rescinded in May 2023). Altogether, the number of removals and expulsions increased from about 9,000 to about 16,000 in September 2022 (the latest month made available). Most reports about ICE removals have not acknowledged the ICE’s Title 42 expulsions, which have replaced many formal “removals” under Title 8 authority, creating a false impression that ICE has been forcing out fewer immigrants overall. Expulsions accounted for a majority of ICE‐​forced departures in 2022.

Tom Cartwright of the advocacy group Witness at the Border collects important data on the number of ICE flights by destination, and ICE is conducting more flights than ever. Figure 2 shows the number of ICE flights by type: international removal or expulsion flights with a destination outside the United States, a “lateral” flight along the U.S.-Mexico border to expel someone under Title 42, and other purely domestic flights. These other flights include the first legs of a removal fight as well as transfers to open detention space.

One explanation for why the number of people removed or expelled has not fully recovered to pre‐​pandemic levels might be that people expelled following a “lateral flight”—which fly along the U.S.-Mexico border to expel the person to a different Mexican state (at Mexico’s request)—are probably not included in the number of ICE Title 42 expulsions. If these “lateral” flights were included in the removal figures for ICE, there would be no overall decline in removals.

Another explanation could be that ICE is flying to a more diverse set of countries than they were pre‐​pandemic. It is easier to fill planes to traditional destinations, and it appears that there were fewer people onboard each ICE flight at least from late‐​2020 to the middle of 2021. Title 42 expulsion policies at the border have also meant fewer transfers of Mexicans to ICE custody because they can just be quickly expelled to Mexico. But despite fewer ICE removals, they are still being sent back to Mexico by Customs and Border Protection, which contributes to the slower recovery in ICE removals.

More Immigrants Detained

ICE has also increased the number of people that it is incarcerating in ICE detention facilities since January 2021. From January 2021 to June 2023, the number of people in ICE detention doubled from 15,097 to 30,005. Figure 3 makes clear that Biden reversed the downward trend in ICE detention that started before the pandemic. While it is true that ICE has used detention more judiciously than before the pandemic, when detention was a goal in and of itself, Biden’s ICE has certainly not “gutted” detention either. In reality, it has increased detention use since Biden came into office.

Another measure of enforcement activity is the number of ICE administrative arrests (i.e. people ICE charges as removable from the United States). Monthly ICE arrests have fully recovered in 2022 to their pre‐​pandemic monthly rate during the first half of 2020. Border Patrol aided this recovery by releasing people at the border without charging them and telling them to check in with ICE to finish the charging process—most of whom did so.

More Interior Enforcement

The Border Patrol release policy shifted some workload off Border Patrol and onto ICE, but this initiative has now ended, so it is possible that administrative arrests have fallen since the end of the 2022 fiscal year in September. However, ICE also releases monthly statistics on the number of people arrested and booked into ICE detention facilities, which would exclude Border Patrol releases and other arrests not ending in ICE detention. These statistics also show a rise from January 2021.

ICE removals of people who were arrested in the interior of the United States also show a similar pattern. The number of removals declined from about 7,500 in October 2019 to about 2,400 in January 2021 before doubling to about 4,800 by September 2022. If the Biden administration had maintained interior removals at the same level as in January 2021, it would have removed about 14,000 fewer immigrants than it has in reality.

Official ICE enforcement guidelines have undergone several iterations under President Biden. Court rulings have repeatedly forced it to alter its stated policies on prioritizing enforcement of criminals and recent border crossers. Nonetheless, ICE has ended workplace raids, and ICE prosecutors have dismissed tens of thousands of cases against low‐​priority immigrants. But despite the claims of critics that immigration enforcement is too low, ICE activity is increasing steadily and in many cases outperforming its capacities at the end of the Trump era.

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
Three Reasons to Be Very Skeptical of U.S. “Carbon Tariffs”
next post
Swift Partners Up With Chainlink For New Crypto Developments: What Could This Mean For New Token Caged Beasts?

You may also like

To Head Off Strongman Governance, Keep Presidential Power...

January 31, 2024

The Debt Delusion: Why Modern Monetary Theory Is...

July 11, 2024

What If Every State Had Record Immigration?

July 3, 2024

Taiwan Arms Backlog, November 2024 Update: HIMARS Delivery...

December 13, 2024

The Government Can’t Revoke a Visa Because of...

April 30, 2025

A Dollarization Reading List

October 17, 2023

Financial Regulators’ Open-Source Crackdown Sets Bad Precedent for...

September 1, 2023

The Coming Trump Travel Bans Will Seek to...

March 10, 2025

A New Day in Federal Anti-Discrimination Law

January 22, 2025

Owners Have the Right to Choose Who Lives...

June 6, 2024

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • Rubio condemns assassination attempt on Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe

      June 8, 2025
    • Obama WH physician says Biden doc should have performed cognitive test

      June 8, 2025
    • Trump warns of ‘serious consequences’ if Elon Musk funds Democrats

      June 7, 2025
    • Musk jokes about reconsidering stance on Big Beautiful Bill after Schiff’s praise

      June 7, 2025
    • Musk deletes explosive posts about Trump and Epstein files

      June 7, 2025
    • House witness flips script on Dem who ambushed him during hearing with unearthed tweet: ‘Iceberg is ahead’

      June 7, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,152)
    • Investing (2,019)
    • Politics (15,570)
    • Stocks (3,136)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved