With the DACA deadline looming and everything from a "DACA" fix to comprehensive reform being debated in Congress - we do now have a full year worth of immigration enforcement information from the Trump administration. So, what's real and what's political noise? Here are some of the highlights:
74% of all ICE arrests had previous criminal records
An additional 11% had pending charges/cases in the legal system
Only 11% had no prior legal history
The President claimed that the priority was to identify and act against known offenders who also happen to be here illegally. Based on the facts from the first year - it's clear that was absolutely the focus. Here's the next round of relevant info...
143,470 arrests made in 2017 (+30% over 2016)
So, there was a significant increase in overall enforcement during President Trump's first year in office but it's still much lower than just a few years ago. During the Obama administration ICE arrests had declined 63% from 297,898 in 2009 to 110,104 in 2016. So where are they happening?
Three of the top five cities for arrests over the past year were in Texas. Here are the top five:
#5 San Antonio
#4 Chicago
#3 Atlanta
#2 Houston
#1 Dallas
The only Florida city to show up in the top 25 was Miami at #10. 6,192 ICE arrests, or an average of 17 per day, have taken place in Miami over the past year.