ICE deported 2,962 immigrants in April, according to the agency. It is the first time the monthly figure has dipped below 3,000, records show. The April total is a 20 percent decline from March, when ICE deported 3,716.
President Biden and his Department of Homeland Security team have issued new rules to rein in ICE officers, who were afforded wide latitude under the Trump administration to make arrests and were encouraged to boost deportations.
“This administration has de-emphasized the likelihood that people would get arrested if they aren’t a threat to public safety or recently crossed the border, so they are not going to have strong removal numbers,” said Ronald Vitiello, ICE’s acting director from 2018-19.
“That’s part of a signal being sent — that immigration enforcement isn’t a priority for this team,” Vitiello said. “The odds of being arrested just for being in the country illegally were always extremely low, and now they’ve basically ruled it out by policy.”
Out of sight, out of mind.
The number of “removals” of people who showed up or were captured at the border last month hasn’t been announced yet but it’s probably close to 172,000 that ICE dealt with in March. Biden is doing everything he can to prevent the Republicans and the media from making this an issue. He’s not filling up detention centers with adults and families who arrived at the border, preventing all those nasty TV images of crowded jails. His administration is shoving kids out the door of detention facilities and into the waiting arms of sponsors who may — or may not — have the children’s best interests at heart. Vetting procedures for these child caregivers have been short-circuited.
And they’re changing the rules on how ICE enforces the law, making it appear the problem is under control when the reality is it’s going to get a lot worse. But Biden’s solution appears to be set: simply prevent immigration authorities from doing their jobs. If they can’t do their jobs, the numbers will drop — deportations, arrests, and detentions. DHS has already prevented ICE from enforcing the law at courthouses where agents would routinely arrest illegal aliens. They have become “no go” zones for ICE enforcement agents — the first of many such zones to come.
The effort to obscure what’s happening at the border is going to be successful because the lapdog media doesn’t want to make the border crisis an issue. They will continue to play along, lauding Biden for his “humanity” while American citizens along the border are being overrun.
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