New — ICE in 2020 arrested fewer immigrants than in any year during the Trump admin, and deportations hit a 15-year low, largely due to the pandemic.
900k immigrants were deported in the past 4 years—compared to 1.5 million during Pres. Obama's 1st term. cbsnews.com/news/ice-arres…
ICE said it carried out 185,000 deportations in FY 2020, compared to 226,000 in FY 2017, the previous Trump admin low.
ICE arrests, including "at large" ones in communities, dropped to 103,000 (from 143,000 in FY 2019).
The ICE detention population fell below 16,000 this month.
ICE said arrests and deportations dropped sharply because of travel restrictions, Covid-19 mitigation policies and because it received fewer detainees from border officials, who have been rapidly expelling most migrants.
The agency also scaled back arrests in March due to Covid.
"We did scale down enforcement. We didn't stop it. We just prioritized those with a criminal element and those subject to mandatory detention," top ICE official Henry Lucero told reporters today.
"Around Sept., we slightly adjusted that," he added, noting arrests continue.
Advocates for immigrants said the relatively low current ICE detainee population and pandemic-related limits on arrests can provide the incoming Biden administration an opportunity to discontinue immigration detention.
A lot of folks (with different policy views) seem surprised that Pres-elect Biden and his advisers are saying their efforts to terminate Pres. Trump's immigration policies will not be instantaneous.
NEW — President-elect Biden is planning to follow through on campaign pledges to implement a 100-day freeze on deportations, limit ICE arrests and overturn some of the Trump admin.'s border restrictions for asylum-seekers, transition officials said. cbsnews.com/news/biden-lim…
The seismic changes in immigration policy — especially for asylum programs along the U.S.-Mexico border — will take time and will not be carried out immediately, given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Biden's advisers cautioned.
"This is an area of policy-making where there has been grave damage done by the current administration. They have created chaos. They've even weaponized the immigration system to separate children from their families," one Biden adviser said.
NEW — Pres-elect Biden is planning to follow through on pledges to implement a 100-day freeze on ICE deportations & gradually end the Remain-in-Mexico / safe 3rd country asylum policies.
On a call today, a Biden transition official said the implementation details for the deportation moratorium are still being worked out.
The official said there will be a "sensible approach" to ICE arrests and deportations. Further details are being discussed, per the official.
The transition officials said the incoming Biden admin. will start processing asylum claims at border ports and work towards ending Pres. Trump's policies — but they said this will take time amid a pandemic.
A more "efficient" and "humane" asylum system will be built, they said.
New — A federal judge who has issued scathing rulings against Obama-era immigration policies is set to review the legality of the DACA deportation relief program for "Dreamers," just weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. cbsnews.com/news/daca-depo…
The case before Judge Andrew Hanen represents the most imminent threat to DACA.
If Hanen declares DACA unlawful, the ruling could hamstring Mr. Biden's pledge to safeguard the program, and place 640,000 current recipients and 300,000 potential new applicants in legal limbo.
The states challenging DACA have not asked Hanen to immediately terminate the protections for current recipients.
Instead, they've asked him to either suspend DACA by barring new applications and renewals, or to delay an order terminating the program in its entirety for 2 years.
NEW — The Trump admin. has said migrant children will overwhelm US shelters and spread Covid-19 unless it can rapidly expel them.
But 4 shelters officials with federal contracts told @CBSNews the US has space for the children and can safely care for them. cbsnews.com/news/migrant-c…
The US shelter operators, who requested anonymity because they're restricted from speaking publicly about their work with the government, said they don't believe expelling migrant children with little or no due process is the only way to contain the coronavirus.
"COVID is a reality and it is not going away anytime soon. We can say, 'We can't figure it out, it's too hard, it's too complicated.' But I would rather walk a kid through getting COVID than knowing that they are going to die in their home country," one shelter operator said.
New — US border officials have expelled at least 66 unaccompanied migrant children without a court hearing or asylum interview since a federal judge ordered them to stop the practice in November, the Trump admin. conceded over the weekend. cbsnews.com/news/us-border…
"The widespread failure to comply with the injunction is deeply concerning and we hope the illegally expelled children will not be harmed before they can be found, if they can be found," Lee Gelernt, the ACLU attorney challenging the expulsions, told @CBSNews.
The migrant children expelled were as young as 12. One turned out to be a U.S. citizen.
Trump admin. lawyers expressed regret and acknowledged the expulsions represent a "contravention" of the court ruling in November that found these expulsions to be unlawful.