(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Trump administration has touted its roughly 8,000 arrests of illegal immigrations since Inauguration Day. However, some of those immigrants have been released back into the United States on a monitoring program, according to NBC News.
“Those released are being kept on a monitoring program known as Alternatives to Detention … which has for more than a decade been used to keep track of where migrants are as they make their way through the immigration system. ICE can track them by ankle monitors or wrist bands or through telephonic check-ins,” NBC reported, citing five sources familiar with the matter.
“Trump’s ban on ‘catch and release‘ appears to be in effect at the southern border, where few migrants are being processed for asylum claims. But because ICE is funded for only 41,500 beds nationwide, it is still releasing some migrants who were detained in the interior of the country,” the outlet explained.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson reportedly confirmed NBC’s information.
“The agency’s federal law enforcement officers do everything they can to keep our communities safe,” the spokesperson reportedly said. “In some cases, ICE is required to release certain arrested aliens from custody.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said on Jan. 28 that it made an average of 710 immigration arrests daily from the previous Thursday through Monday, up from a daily average of 311 in a 12-month period through September under President Joe Biden. If that rate holds, it would surpass ICE’s previous high mark set in the Obama administration, when daily arrests averaged 636 in 2013.
ICE averaged 376 arrests a day in the government’s four fiscal years that align most closely with the first Trump administration, from 2017 to 2020.
ICE hasn’t said how many people it has deported since Trump took office gain, but the administration has highlighted removal flights, including the use of military planes.
Under Biden, ICE deported more than 270,000 people in a 12-month period that ended in September. That was the highest annual tally in a decade, helped by an increase in deportation flights. The Biden administration did not use military planes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
