Q&A of the Day – Illegal Immigrants Arrested by ICE in Florida
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station’s page in the iHeart app.
Today’s Entry: Brian, I saw the story about the 18 illegal immigrants arrested by ICE in Florida recently. Two questions came to mind. First, we know that there are far more than 18 illegal immigrants in Florida so why specifically was it those 18? Second, have ICE’s enforcement actions become so rare that it’s now news when they’re doing their job?
Bottom Line: From the southern border to our own backyards in South Florida it’s no secret that times and policies changed significantly between the Trump and Biden administrations. And in answer to your first question about the recently announced 18 illegal immigrants arrested by ICE in Florida – they were targeted specifically because of the Biden administration's current policy which is to focus on arresting and deporting those lacking legal status who “have committed serious crimes”. In the case of the 18 illegal immigrants in Florida recently arrested by ICE they identified each as having committed a serious crime. Among the crimes committed by these illegal immigrants according to ICE were:
- Hit-and-run
- Child neglect
- DUI
- Battery
- Property damage
- Resisting an officer
- Drug possession
Quoting the Miami field office which carried out the operation to arrest the illegal immigrants: ERO (enforcement and removal operation) is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that protects citizens throughout Florida by arresting and removing of those who pose a safety threat to our communities. Now in terms of how rare, or common these enforcement actions tend to be...
Over the past year a total of 46,396 noncitizens with criminal histories have been arrested and removed by ICE. Of those 8,164 were for sexual offenses and 1,501 were for homicide and 1,114 were for kidnapping/trafficking offenses. So, in the grand scheme of things enforcement actions aren’t rare – there are an average of 127 illegal immigrants arrested by ICE daily under the Biden administration across the country – however yes, it’s a lot more isolated than it used to be and the total numbers are way below where they used to be.
The figures we have for this data are all backward looking, that said what we’ve seen under the Biden administration, relative to the Trump administration is a 40% decline in ICE arrests and a 70% decline in deportations. Those are huge declines for sure, though it’s magnified still further by the border policy of the administration which has allowed for a record number of undocumented migrants to enter this country as well. According to Syracuse University's ongoing TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse) Immigration program, 36.9% of ICE detainees, those that are retained at detention facilities across the country, have criminal records. In Florida specifically, ICE enforcement action has dropped by almost exactly 75% since the onset of the Biden administration which is likely a reason why you don’t come across stories, like the recently arrested 18 illegal immigrants, perhaps as often as you used to. In fact, Florida’s no longer a top five state for enforcement action. The top five are currently Texas, Louisiana, California, Arizona and Georgia in that order. And part of that reason is due to what ICE calls an “Alternative to Detention” monitoring program.
As ICE outlines, the Alternative to Detention programs exist to ensure compliance with release conditions and provide important case management services for non-detained noncitizens. Exist to ensure compliance with release conditions and provide important case management services for non-detained noncitizens. This is largely and theoretically achieved through GPS monitoring devices and is justified though cost. As ICE states the cost per person monitored this way is about $8 per day as opposed to $150 per day per non-citizen that’s detained. The Miami-Metro has the 3rd most ATD monitored migrants in the country with greater than 19,000 currently. So, in many cases ICE has arrested and detained illegal immigrants in South Florida, but as opposed to deporting them, they’ve decided to electronically monitor them. And none of this speaks to the greater than 4.5 million noncitizens “overseen on ICE’s non-detained docket”. They don’t seem to try to tell us where those 4.5 million plus people are. Probably because they have no idea, but yes, to the original point of your note – there's no doubt that many, likely at least hundreds of thousands of them, are here in Florida.