Biden’s planned ICE deportations of criminal immigrants down 85% compared to Obama
Anna Giaritelli
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The Biden administration is internally planning to deport an unprecedentedly low number of illegal immigrants with criminal convictions beyond illegal entry, down about 85% compared to the peak of the Obama administration, according to a government document justifying the White House budget proposal for the upcoming year.
Homeland Security documents that offer a detailed breakdown of the department’s budget request for more than $60 billion in fiscal 2023 show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement Removal Operations Arm envisioned deporting 29,393 criminal immigrants this year, as well as in fiscal 2024 — a drop from last year and a significant decline from the previous two administrations.
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Fiscal years begin in October of the previous year and run through the following September.
President Joe Biden’s anticipated removals are drastically lower compared to the more than 199,000 criminals that ICE removed in 2012, the highest year on record under former President Barack Obama. That year, more than 400,000 illegal immigrants were removed, and roughly half had been convicted of separate violent crimes.
During the Trump administration’s final full year in office, ICE had planned to deport more than 151,000 criminal immigrants but hit slightly more than 100,000 in 2020.
In President Joe Biden’s first full year in office, ICE planned to remove 91,000 criminal immigrants but only deported 38,000 in 2022.
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Over the past decade, ICE has increasingly focused on arresting and removing illegal immigrants who have criminal records. In 2009, two-thirds of people deported were noncriminal offenders, and one-third were convicted criminals. The Obama administration changed the standards to further focus on criminals, and over the past decade, 50%-70% of deportees were convicted criminals.
ICE uses its own airline to fly people home, as well as commercial flights.