Immigration and Custom and Enforcement (ICE) Executive Associate Director Nathalie R. Asher recently offered an assessment of the agency’s January-March 2019 enforcement statistics, citing a commitment to arresting unlawfully present aliens.
“During this time period, more than 85 percent of aliens arrested by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers and more than 91 percent of aliens removed from the interior of the United States, had received criminal convictions or pending criminal charges,” Asher noted in a statement. “The situation at the border continues to impact interior enforcement, with ERO personnel routinely detailed to support the processing and detention of arriving aliens. Administrative arrests of criminal aliens over the first two quarters of FY19 are down 14 percent versus the same time period in FY18. And ICE removals stemming from Customs and Border Protection apprehensions have increased 10 percent in the first two quarters of FY19 over FY18.”
Asher said the agency is dedicated to using its authorities to enforce immigration laws and ICE officers will continue to conduct enforcement humanely, respectfully and with professionalism.
ICE officials said unlawfully present aliens threaten public safety and endanger immigrant communities, adding official numbers can vary slightly from preliminary data, depending on when statistics are reported and collected while enforcement data is not considered final and static until the end of the fiscal year.