Number of Undocumented Immigrants in Detention Centers Has Increased by More Than 50% since Biden

[WhiskeyGrinder]

The Number of Undocumented Immigrants in Detention Centers Has Increased by More Than 50% since Biden Took Office

https://www.govexec.com/management/2021/12/number-undocumented-immigrants-detention-centers-has-increased-more-50-biden-took-office/187217/

Reyna, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and placed in the agency’s detention center in Pearsall, where he’s remained for 11 months as he fights the government’s efforts to deport him to Nuevo Leon, the Mexican state he left more than two decades ago. He hasn’t been charged with a crime.

An ICE spokesperson didn’t say why authorities have been holding him in custody for nearly a year, saying it “does not comment on pending litigation.” But according to Reyna’s lawyer, ICE attorneys believe Reyna is a flight risk and a threat to public safety because of a previous deportation and a 2000 misdemeanor in Dallas.

(snip)

In February, the Biden administration issued an interim memorandum that instructed immigration agents to focus on detaining undocumented immigrants suspected of terrorism or espionage, those who entered the country illegally after Nov. 1, 2020, and those convicted of an aggravated felony. If a person didn’t fall into one of those categories, officers needed approval from a senior manager to explain why the immigrant should be deported, according to the memo.

The memo signaled to immigrant rights advocates that many undocumented immigrants who have lived in the country for decades would not have to be in constant fear of deportation. That includes immigrants like Reyna, whose misdemeanor conviction in Dallas for solicitation of prostitution led to him voluntarily returning to Mexico before crossing the border again soon after.

But advocates say that hasn’t been the reality since Biden was inaugurated.

[tirebiter]

1. Only half as many now?

[MichMan]

2. 50% more

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Here are the hard numbers.

On Oct. 1, a recorded 22,129 immigrants were in ICE detention centers, a 56% increase since Biden took office, according to statistics compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, also known as TRAC. Overall, 75% of ICE detainees have no criminal record — ICE classifies a person as a convicted criminal even if the crime is as innocuous as not keeping a dog on a leash, according to TRAC’s analysis.

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, the number of people in ICE detention was 38,000, according to TRAC’s analysis. Just before Biden took office in January 2021, the number of detainees decreased to as low as 15,000 — a 60% drop. That downward trend continued for the first month of the Biden administration before the number of ICE detainees started to rise.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. Is this because Central American refugees and immigrants flooded through Mexico after the election?

I suppose many were fooled into thinking our laws and rules would change after President Biden's inauguration.

Human traffickers are probably responsible for much of that deception and I would not put it past Russia to have encouraged that using their trolls via social media, just to make us look bad and to further divide us.

KY.....

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. Afternoon kick.