ICE arrested fewer in 2019 budget year as resources went to border

DALLAS — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested fewer people during the 2019 budget year than last year, in part because resources were shifted to help handle the massive surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, the agency said Wednesday.

And the average number of immigrants in detention was 50,165 — even though Congress limits funding to cover 45,000.

“There is no doubt that the border crisis, coupled with the unwillingness of some local jurisdictions that choose to put politics over public safety, has made it more difficult for ICE to carry out its congressionally mandated interior enforcement mission,” acting director Matt Albence said.

Enforcement and removal officers with ICE — a Homeland Security agency — arrest and detain immigrants who are deemed to be in the U.S. illegally. Over the budget year that ended Sept. 30, officers arrested about 143,000 people, about 13,000 less than last year, and deported more than 267,000. More than 92,000 of the arrests were of people with criminal convictions, Albence said, including for homicide, kidnapping, sexual assault and assault.

ICE officers were diverted to help with the border crisis, which affected overall arrests, Albence said at a news conference in Dallas, where the largest number of arrests occurred — 16,900 — and where there’s a high level of cooperation with local law enforcement. Local law enforcement do not help ICE in sanctuary cities such as New York and Chicago.

Nearly 300 of the Dallas-area arrests were made in April during a raid at a technology company — one of the largest such enforcement actions in a decade

There was a drastic increase in the number of families crossing the border last year — at least 473,000 for the budget year, nearly three times the previous full-year record for families. Most were coming from Central America.