Who Is Trump Removing? Immigration Arrests Of Undocumented Immigrants Soar In The US

The number of immigration arrests by the federal government has grown significantly while the number of arrests for other federal offenses have plummeted sharply in the last 10 years, according to research released Monday by the Pew Research Center. The news came as the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency was ramping up its efforts to arrest, detain and ultimately deport undocumented immigrants who have a violent criminal history in the U.S.

Pew's research, based on a new report by the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, found that one in every two federal arrests were related to some type of immigration-related violation in 2014, the most recent month available for applicable data.

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For full context, federal immigration arrests accounted for 28 percent of all arrests in 2004, 22 percent fewer immigration arrests a decade later. Conversely, federal arrests for drugs, probation or parole violations, property crimes and guns were all down significantly in that same time period.

ICE has been ramping up its enforcement of national immigration laws since late January, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order "in order to ensure the public safety of the American people in communities across the United States as well as to ensure that our Nation's immigration laws are faithfully executed."

The arrests, detentions and deportations have continued at a high rate ever since, as exemplified by ICE arrests last week increasing by 250 times compared to one week before that, the Washington Examiner reported on Saturday.

The week prior, ICE announced it had "arrested 82 individuals from 26 different countries during a five-day operation focused in Virginia and the District of Columbia that ran from March 26 to 30."

The arrests have been taking place in every corner of the country and between.

Upon announcing those arrests from late last month, ICE reinforced its mission statement.

"ICE conducts targeted immigration enforcement operations focused on criminal aliens," Yvonne Evans, ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations Washington Field Office Director, said in a brief statement. "This week’s operation successfully removed immigration violators with a variety of criminal convictions ranging from driving under the influence to grand larceny from our communities."