Even as Trump plans mass deportations, there are not enough immigration agents to deal with an existing backload of deportation orders – and the number of agents have largely remained static, at around 6,000 officers -- even as caseloads quadrupled over the past decade, Rebecca Santana of the Associated Press reports, after following a unit of immigration officers in New York.
Nationally, 6,000 ICE officers are tasked with monitoring noncitizens in the country and then finding and removing those not eligible to stay. But about 1.4 million people have final orders of removal, while about 660,000 under immigration supervision either have been convicted of crimes or are facing charges.
Of course, there is intense interest in how the Republican will carry out Trump’s immigration agenda, including a campaign pledge of mass deportations, Santana writes. The question is: who will Trump target?
The Biden administration had narrowed deportation priorities to public safety threats and recent border crossers. Trump’s incoming “border czar,” Tom Homan, says officials in the new administration also will prioritize those who pose a risk, such as criminals, before moving on to immigrants whom courts have ordered removed from the U.S.
Homan also has signaled that enforcement could be wider: “If you’re in the country illegally you got a problem,” he said recently on Dr. Phil’s Merit TV.
Over a recent 12-month period, ICE deported more than 270,000 people, the highest annual tally in a decade, the agency said in a recent report.
One of the barriers for ICE stepping up its deportations is the “sanctuary” policies implemented by many left-leaning states and states, which limit cooperation from their jails and other governmental with federal immigration authorities. In New York City, for example, ICE used to have an office at the jail to easily take custody of noncitizens. In 2014, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio signed legislation kicking out ICE and restricting police cooperation. That happened across the nation, pushed by immigration advocates, who have had longstanding concerns with ICE’s tactics.
Some sheriffs and local mayors, including Eric Adams, have signaled that they are willing to revisit those policies.
Yet advocates note that during Trump’s first term, there were a lot of “collateral arrests” where immigration officers would detain others besides those being targeted, said Jehan Laner, a senior staff attorney for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. That destabilizes communities, she said, adding, “We saw them go after everyone.”