U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement collared almost 70,000 illegal aliens during the first 100 days of the Trump administration, and removed almost 66,000, the vast majority of whom were criminals.
As well, the agency reported today, thousands of the deportees were terrorists linked to the gangs that President Donald Trump labeled terrorist organizations on Day 1 of his presidency.
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show a 90-percent drop of encounters at the southwest border.
Biden’s Damage
ICE faces the nearly insuperable task of removing illegals the Biden administration invited to the southwest border then released into the country.
For four years, Biden imported as many illegals as he could. He even flew 530,000 directly into the country and released them. That left Trump to find and remove them, a Herculean task that Biden and his Homeland Security secretary, unindicted visa fraudster Alejandro Mayorkas, knew would be almost impossible because of the number of illegals, the inevitable leftist lawfare to keep them here, and the caterwauling of Democrats and their Mainstream Media Information Ministry.
The Numbers
As of July 2024, more than 660,000 criminals — including 13,000 murderers — were running free in the streets, President Joe Biden’s ICE disclosed to U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas. ICE revealed the data in September.
Still, ICE has progressed at least a little. The agency arrested 66,463 illegals and deported 65,682 in the first 100 days of the new Trump administration; 75 percent of the arrests were criminals, “putting the worst first,” the agency averred.
As well, acting ICE chief Todd Lyons said, the arrests included 2,288 members of MS-13, 18th Street, and Tren de Aragua terror gangs. Another 1,329 were either convicted sex offenders or sex-crime suspects; 498 were accused of or convicted of murder.
“The criminal records of those arrested include convictions or charges for 9,639 assaults, 6,398 DWIs or DUIs and 1,479 weapon offenses,” ICE reported.
Another datum: Homeland Security Investigations has arrested 1,000 illegal workers and proposed more than $1 million in fines against the businesses that hire and exploit them.
As well, the agency reported, it “has significantly ramped up arrests and removals with help from state and local law enforcement agencies through the 287(g) Program,” and now has 579 “pending and signed agreements with police departments and sheriff’s offices across the nation.”
The 287(g) program allows ICE to enlist state and local police in operations to identify, arrest, and deport criminal illegals.
Recent Raids
Recent arrest and removal operations that the Biden administration would never consider are now routine.
As The New American reported yesterday, multiple federal agencies led by the Drug Enforcement Administration raided an illegal nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at 3:00 a.m. Sunday. Terror gang members frequented the club, where agents found illegal drugs and firearms. Worst of all, those arrested included U.S. Army soldiers, stationed at nearby Fort Carson, who provided security. The GIs carried weapons.
The underground club featured prostitution and “significant drug trafficking,” and “we had over a dozen active-duty service members in the club tonight, either as patrons or working as armed security,” a top DEA agent revealed.
The arrests raise the question of whether the terror gangs have infiltrated the military and whether soldiers have joined the terror gangs.
Last week, Operation Tidal Wave, another multi-agency effort, ended in the arrest of 780 illegal aliens, some of whom were members of MS-13. Others were “murderers, rapists, drug traffickers and human rights abusers,” DHS reported.
Border Numbers
Raids and arrests aside, the number of encounters between border agents and illegal aliens at the southwest border show what a difference an election can make.
Since October 1, the beginning of fiscal 2025, the number has plummeted some 89 percent from 106,321 to 11,017 in March.
In January, the number was 61,448, which crashed to 11,709 in February, an 81-percent drop.
By this time last fiscal year, encounters numbered 1,340,774. All those through January 20 were Biden “migrants.” As of March 31 this year, the number was 380,721, a 71-percent decrease.
Trump’s border encounters thus far are 22,726, plus those in the last two weeks in January.
Encounters at the border with Canada have cratered as well since October 1, from 15,207 to 4,479, a 70.5-percent drop. Thus far this fiscal year, border agents have encountered 52,470 illegals. Last year by this time, the number was 91,752. Decrease: 43 percent.
