Furor Over Immigration Arrests Not Supported by Numbers

Immigration officials arrested more than 680 illegal immigrants in the last week, compared with an average of 1,336 per week in 2015.
Furor Over Immigration Arrests Not Supported by Numbers
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carried out arrests of more than 680 illegal immigrants last week, 75 percent of whom were convicted criminals. Courtesy of ICE
Charlotte Cuthbertson
Charlotte Cuthbertson
Senior Reporter
|Updated:

NEW YORK—Immigration officials arrested more than 680 individuals nationwide last week, according to numbers provided by the Department of Homeland Security on Feb. 13. Many major media outlets ran that number as a top news story.

In comparison, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported a total of 69,478 people in fiscal year 2015 from inside the country (not at or near the border). That is an average of 1,336 people per week deported; the number arrested could have been slightly higher. Ninety-one percent of those deported were convicted criminals.

The number of arrests last week is low, according to Michael Cutler, a former ICE agent and immigration official for 30 years.

The fact that this makes a headline blows my mind.
— Michael Cutler, former ICE agent and immigration official
Charlotte Cuthbertson
Charlotte Cuthbertson
Senior Reporter
Charlotte Cuthbertson is a senior reporter with The Epoch Times who primarily covers border security and the opioid crisis.
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