Report Shows Trump's Mass Deportation of Immigrants Increased Crime Rates – LAW

The US think tank Cato Institute claimed in a report published on Wednesday that the political focus on mass deportation of asylum seekers during Donald Trump's 2017-2020 presidency led to an increase in the number of detentions by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). released criminals.

The report assumes that the former president's immigration policies led to an increase in the number of non-citizens convicted of crimes uncovered by ICE by relying on executive orders, Department of Homeland Security memos (DHS) and ICE appealed.

Shortly after taking office as president in January 2017, Trump signed an executive order authorizing the mass deportation of asylum seekers, changing an Obama-era policy that primarily prioritized the deportation of immigrants with criminal histories. While at first glance the order purported to still prioritize criminal deportations, its focus on mass deportations of asylum seekers made it fundamentally impossible for ICE to logistically focus on removing criminal noncitizens from the country.

According to data collected under the Freedom of Information Act, the number of criminals encountered by the Border Patrol began to increase. After the introduction of the Title 42 policy, which prohibits asylum, it eventually rose to its highest level ever recorded. In 2018 and 2019, tens of thousands of criminally convicted noncitizens were released from custody while the administration focused on prosecuting asylum seekers. The number increased from 17,069 in 2017 to 19,383 in 2019, totaling 58,184 from January 2018 to February 2020. Data also showed that the number of asylum seekers' prevarications or “escape attempts” have increased significantly under the Title 42 policy.

According to the Justice Department, “anecdotal reports from the field” claimed that the Border Patrol “lacked real worthy defendants” and would simply send the migrants back to Mexico, where they would then try again. This failure to arrest and prosecute criminals was attributed to the Border Police's inability to “properly process and identify serious/dangerous criminal aliens” under the new initiatives.

The Trump administration's immigration policies resulted in thousands of children being separated from their families during deportation proceedings and many children unable to be reunited due to faulty record keeping. Trump ended the policy in June 2018. Shortly before leaving office, Trump finalized comprehensive asylum regulations, although federal courts blocked many restrictions from taking effect. The border crisis has continued under the Biden administration, which was recently taken to court by human rights groups over its ban on asylum.