US Deported Less Than 30,000 Illegal Aliens in Fiscal Year 2022: ICE

A Border Patrol agent instructs illegal immigrants who crossed the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Dec. 19, 2022. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Deportation rates have continued to remain low under President Joe Biden compared to his predecessor, with the administration removing less than 30,000 illegal aliens in the U.S. states in fiscal year 2022, according to the latest annual report (pdf) from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

ICE made 142,750 arrests and deported 72,177 illegal aliens in the 12 months ending on Sept. 30 last year. The deportation number was higher than the 59,011 deported in fiscal year 2021, which included several months of the Trump administration, but comparatively lower than the 185,884 deported in fiscal year 2020 and 267,258 in fiscal year 2019 (pdf).

The total deportation number comprises both border and interior removals. Of the 72,177 illegal aliens removed in fiscal year 2022, 43,937 happened at the border, while the remaining 28,240 were deported from U.S. communities.

The Trump administration removed more illegal aliens from the country. According to ICE, there were 62,739 interior removals in fiscal year 2020 and 85,958 the year before that—both numbers significantly higher than 28,240 in fiscal year 2022.

ICE Acting Director Tae Johnson, in a statement released on Dec. 30 to accompany the report’s release, said the agency was doing all the work to “keep U.S. communities safe.”

“ICE continues to disrupt transnational criminal organizations, remove threats to national security and public safety, uphold the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and collaborate with its colleagues across government and law enforcement in pursuit of our shared mission to keep U.S. communities safe,” Johnson said.

“ICE’s annual report highlights the efforts of our more than 20,000 law enforcement and support personnel in responding to complex cross-border and domestic threats,” he added. “We will continue to safeguard national security and public safety while living our core values: integrity, courage, and excellence.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, took to Twitter on Jan. 2 to criticize Biden over what the ICE report had revealed.

“Deportations remained well below Trump-era levels in FY 2022, amid Joe Biden’s historic border crisis,” Jordan wrote.

“It’s no wonder illegal aliens continue to come,” he added. “They know once they’re here, Biden won’t enforce the law to remove them!”

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People walk across the Rio Grande to surrender to U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Dec. 13, 2022. (Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images)

Report

According to the ICE report, the deportations in fiscal year 2022 involved over 150 countries. Of the 72,177 deportees, 33,832 were deported to Mexico, the country with the highest number of its nationals being sent back.

Other top deportation destinations included El Salvador (7,231), Guatemala (6,612), Honduras (6,309), Columbia (3,753), Nicaragua (2,538), and Brazil (1,767).

Among those deported, 44,096 had been charged or convicted of crimes, including “2,667 known or suspected gang members, 55 known or suspected terrorists, and seven human rights violators.”

Another 74 deportees were “foreign fugitives wanted by their governments for crimes including homicide, rape, terrorism, and kidnapping.”

The agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 46,396 illegal aliens with criminal histories.

“This group had 198,498 charges and convictions for an average of 4.3 charges or convictions per individual,” the report says. “These included 21,531 charges or convictions for assault; 8,164 for sex offenses and sexual assault;  5,554 for weapons offenses; 1,501 for homicide-related offenses; and 1,114 for kidnapping.”

Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, conducted 36,685 criminal arrests, seized over 1.8 million pounds of narcotics, assisted 1,170 victims of child exploitation, and assisted 765 victims of human trafficking, according to the report.

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U.S. officials reported over 2.3 million encounters in fiscal year 2022, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Over 1 million of those encounters led to migrants being expelled under the COVID-19 pandemic-era Title 42 border policy.

Title 42 was invoked in March 2020 as an order issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was put in place to stop the spread of COVID, as illegal aliens could be quickly turned away at the southern border rather than processed at immigration detention facilities under Title 8 immigration law.

The policy was scheduled to expire on Dec. 21, but the Supreme Court halted its expiration after voting 5–4 on Dec. 27.