Feb. 26 (UPI) — More than 20,000 undocumented immigrants were arrested during the first month Donald Trump was president, according to the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday.
Under President Joe Biden, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted around 33,000 at-large arrests, which averages 2,700 per month.
“President Trump and this Administration are saving lives every day because of the actions we are taking to secure the border and deport illegal alien criminals,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Wednesday. “Hundreds of thousands of criminals were let into this country illegally. We are sending them home, and they will never be allowed to return.”
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Caleb Vitello was removed from his role at the agency.
Trump selected Vitello to fill the post, but he has complained privately about it to his top immigration aides, several people familiar with the matter told CNN and CBS on Friday.
“The Acting Director of ICE is not being fired — he is no longer in an Administrative role, but is overseeing all field and enforcement operations: finding, arresting, and deporting illegal aliens, which is a major priority of the President and Secretary,” said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in a statement.
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle on Tuesday halted Trump’s order to suspend refugee admissions and funding. He was appointed by Biden.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang of Maryland blocked agents from carrying out immigration enforcement actions at places of worship for Quakers, Cooperative Baptists and Sikhs. He was appointed by President Barack Obama.
Deportation figures since Trump became president haven’t been announced.
In fiscal year 2014, ICE deported more than 271,000 unauthorized immigrants, the highest tally recorded by the agency since fiscal year 2014, when the Obama administration carried out 316,000 deportations.
The most when Trump was president the first time was 267,000 in 2019.
In 2023, there were an estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, according to the Center for Migration Studies of New York.
On Tuesday, Customs and Border Protection encountered only 200 undocumented migrants at the U.S. Southern border, the fewest apprehensions in a single day in over 15 years.
Noem launched a multimillion-dollar nationwide and international ad campaign warning illegal aliens to not cross the border.
