The number of people detained and removed by DHS during the 2017 fiscal year dropped when compared to 2016, the last full fiscal year under President Obama. Government data released Tuesday show that DHS detained 323,591 people and removed 226,119 people in FY 2017, most of which elapsed under President Trump’s watch.
ICE’s detention network famously reached a massive scale under President Obama. Tuesday’s release indicates that ICE held about 30,000 fewer people over the course of 2017. Described as an “initial book-in,” ICE took into its custody 352,882 people in FY 2016 and 307,342 people in FY 2015. Despite the drop from 2016, this remains historically high.
[visualizer id=”7662″]
Likewise, the government’s data indicates a drop in the number of people forcibly removed from the United States. In FY 2016, ICE removed 240,255 under an order of removal. The previous year it removed 235,413 people. Despite the lower number of removals, the percentage of people removed who had a criminal record remained fairly constant. In FY 2017, 56 percent of people removed had a criminal history, compared to 58 percent in FY 2016 and 59 percent in FY 15. Importantly, ICE did not disclose the type of crimes for which these people had been convicted—or even if they had been convicted at all.
Separately, DHS’s release breaks from past reporting practices in two ways that make year-to-year comparisons difficult. First, ICE’s enforcement activities data report lists all crimes for which a person had been convicted. In past years, ICE had focused on the most serious offense. Second, Tuesday’s report identifies crimes for which a person had merely been charged. In the United States, a person who has been charged is presumed innocent as a matter of law. In keeping with Trump administration policy, DHS’s report tars people charged with an offense identically as people convicted of an offense.
I’m having difficulty tracking your summary of the new DHS report on detentions and removals. For example, your table on ICE detainees shows 180,000 in FY 2015, although your narrative says there were 307,342 people that year.
It might also help your summary to include a table of those removed, rather than just putting the numbers in the narrative, where they’re harder to compare.
Tables 1 and 2 in the government report purport to itemize those removed by their criminal records, either with convictions or not. The report also specifies that these are duplicative, such that those counted as having convictions may also be counted as having other criminal records, so that it’s not possible to know how many total people are involved. Is there some reason you decided not to discuss these data? (You wrote, ”Importantly, ICE did not disclose the type of crimes for which these people had been convicted—or even if they had been convicted at all.”)
In fairness, I also have questions about the underlying report’s reliability. For example, its decision to change the periods for its fiscal year data clearly has a political basis, but makes yearly comparisons meaningless. And it’s not clear that the DHS authors made similar adjustments for its data in fiscal years before January 20, 2017. It’s entirely possible that seasonal variations, and political events outside the US, also influence both immigrant and enforcement practices.
The report also softpedals the difference between “interior” detentions (I presume this to mean those occurring more than 100 miles from an international border) and “border” detentions. While the total number of the latter type may have declined, even that is questionable. For example, the next to last paragraph in the report says: “Aliens processed for ER and not detained by ERO are primarily processed by Border Patrol. CBP should be contacted for those statistics.” What this suggests to me is that field-officer discretion may be diverting more of those apprehended without detaining them. It’s not clear what standards are used in the field for making those determinations. It would also be interesting to know why DHS chose not to include this CBP data in the report.
Finally, the report makes no mention of “Operation Streamline”, the magistrate criminal court that operates in Tucson and selected other communities to mass-prosecute arrestees caught near the border. In Tucson, 50-70 defendants are typically “processed” four days a week. After they serve their negotiated sentences of 30-180 days in contracted federal prisons, they are removed through Nogales. Most of these defendants appear to have no criminal backgrounds, except for prior illegal border crossings for some (which extends their sentences).
Thanks for any clarifications you can offer.