US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported a record 271,484 immigrants in the last fiscal year, the highest level of deportations since 2014, according to a newly released annual report. The report shows that the Biden administration carried out a significant number of removals, exceeding the previous two years of his presidency, and focused on public safety and national security threats.
Many of the deportations were of people who crossed the US-Mexico border illegally, reflecting the challenge the Biden administration faced along the southern border amid record migration across the globe. ICE removed individuals to nearly 200 different countries.
The report highlights the agency’s efforts to work within limited resources and competing priorities, with Acting ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner stating, “Throughout the year, the agency was called on to do more without commensurate funding, working within the confines of strained resources and competing priorities while steadfastly supporting the Department of Homeland Security and its component agencies in their efforts to secure the border.”
Under President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to make mass deportation a cornerstone of his administration, ICE would need funding from Congress to bolster the agency’s resources and personnel. Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, has said he would require a minimum of 100,000 beds to detain undocumented immigrants and would need more ICE agents, citing the need to “arrest as many people as we can that are in the country illegally.”
