ICE Director: 13,000 Criminals Not Arrested Due to Border Crisis, Sanctuaries

ICE repatriates 37 Cambodian nationals, most convicted criminals, back to Cambodia on July 4, 2019. ICE

WASHINGTON—More than 267,000 aliens were deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in fiscal 2019, slightly up (4.4 percent) from the previous year, the agency said on Dec. 11.

However, the surge at the southern border, on top of sanctuary jurisdictions, drew resources away from interior enforcement, and arrests of convicted criminals by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) decreased by 12 percent.