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ICE Dramatically Ramps Up Noncriminal Arrests After Trump’s Demands

Around 47 percent of people arrested by the agency in June had no criminal charges or convictions against them.

Almost half of all those rounded up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in June had no criminal convictions and faced no criminal charges, according to new data. Early last month, the White House delivered a diktat to Homeland Security demanding that the rate of migrant arrests be tripled, to 3,000 people a day. The pressure appeared to work, with ICE sweeping up 2,200 migrants in 24 hours, just days later. However, new data obtained by the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Deportation Data Project shows that 47 percent of people arrested by the agency in June had no criminal charges or convictions. This contradicts Donald Trump’s campaign promise to “use ICE to deport criminal aliens immediately and aggressively.” While the point about aggression might stand, the administration appears to be cracking down on non-criminals. The 47 percent figure is up from just 21 percent in early May, before White House aide Stephen Miller demanded officers make 3,000 arrests per day or be fired. Even ICE’s own data from June shows that 42 percent of its average 930 daily arrests involved people with no charges or convictions against them. “The media continues to peddle this FALSE narrative that ICE is not targeting criminal illegal aliens,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. As Axios noted, “Being in the U.S. illegally is a civil, not criminal, violation.”.

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