Outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed that his administration is already prioritizing the arrests and removals of dangerous illegal immigrants from the U.S.
Mayorkas, who is set to leave office in about a week, defended the Biden administration’s immigration and border security record over the past four years during a wide-ranging exit interview with The Associated Press. While blaming the U.S.-Mexico border crisis partly on global immigration trends, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) chief also appeared to push back on a campaign pledge by President-elect Donald Trump to focus on deporting criminals and other public safety threats from the country.
“That is exactly what we have done and what we have focused upon,” Mayorkas said to the AP in an interview released Monday.
However, deportation data compiled under the Biden administration and the first Trump administration suggest the two camps prioritized the removal of criminal migrants very differently.
There were a total of 273,708 removals of illegal migrants during the first three fiscal years of the Biden administration, which included removals led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and other federal immigration agents, according to data previously compiled by the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) and shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. This rate marked a substantial decrease from the 749,462 removals that took place during the first three fiscal years under the Trump White House.
The sharp decline in deportations correlated with a drop in removals of criminal migrants, according to the data. There were 423,102 removals of criminal aliens under the first three fiscal years of the Trump administration, with that number falling to 134,617 during the same time period under the current administration — a decline of more than 70%.
The steep disparity in criminal migrant removals has been noted by former ICE chief Tom Homan, who has been tapped to serve as border czar for the incoming Trump administration.
“The number of criminals are a very small fraction of the total deportations,” Homan previously told the DCNF. “So even though Secretary Mayorkas has said they’re going to concentrate on public safety threats, the arrest and removal of criminal aliens is down 74%.”
“Interior arrests are way down, this is an embarrassment for them,” Homan said.
While the removal of criminal migrants dropped under the Biden-era, the level of illegal immigration into the U.S. reached all-time highs. Fiscal years 2023 and 2024 were the worst and second-worst years, respectively, for illegal migrant encounters. The Biden White House capped off its four fiscal years in office with roughly 8.5 million migrant encounters along the southern border.
Mayorkas, the first cabinet secretary to be impeached since the 1800s, blamed a failed 2024 Senate border deal and also pointed to worldwide migration trends when questioned about the massive border crisis that unfolded under his watch.
“The level of displacement is now greater than it ever has been since World War II,” he stated to the AP. “And that is a phenomenon that is experienced internationally.”
Assuming she prevails in her Senate confirmation, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem will serve as Mayorkas’ successor. Agency veteran Caleb Vitello has been tapped to lead ICE and former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott has been nominated to lead Customs and Border Protection.
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