Al Jazeera look at the immigration policy of US President Joe Biden over the past year - as some say he has done little to change the dynamics at the border.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigration enforcement arrests within the U.S. fell sharply over the past year as the Biden administration shifted its enforcement priorities to focus on people in the country without legal status who have committed serious crimes, officials said Friday.
As it released its annual report, reflecting eight months under President Joe Biden, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said total immigration arrests dropped nearly 40% from the previous year while the number of people apprehended who had committed "aggravated felonies" nearly doubled.
Total deportations fell to the lowest in the agency's history, down nearly 70% to 59,011, a number that, in part, reflects use of a public health order implemented during the pandemic to expel people without formal deportation proceedings.
Officials portray this strategy as an efficient use of limited law enforcement resources, but it puts the administration in a bind between critics, primarily on the right, who want to see more apprehensions and progressive Democrats who have called for dramatically scaling back the mission of ICE or even eliminating it altogether.
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A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer looks on during an operation in Escondido, Calif., on July 8, 2019.
At a minimum, the strategy also reflects a departure from the strategy pursued under former President Donald Trump, who early on directed ICE to apprehend anyone who was in the country illegally regardless of other circumstances.
"As the annual report's data reflects, ICE's officers and special agents focused on cases that delivered the greatest law enforcement impact in communities across the country while upholding our values as a nation," acting Director Tae Johnson said in a statement announcing the results.
In what it called a "rebalanced" approach, ICE said its Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations arrested 74,082 noncitizens, a combination of people referred to the agency by Customs and Border Protection and people detained "at large" in the country.
That figure is down from 103,603 in the 2019 budget year, which was down 28% from the prior 12 months because of policies implemented at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including use of the public health order to quickly turn back people stopped at the border without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum.
ICE said nearly half the arrests and deportations since Biden took office consisted of "serious criminals," which the administration defines as people convicted of felonies or "aggravated felonies," without providing a more detailed breakdown.
In addition to who it targets, ICE has also changed where it operates. The administration last year directed the agency to limit enforcement actions at schools, hospitals and a range of other sensitive locations.
The agency argues in its statement that the "public safety impact has been dramatic," with the number of monthly arrests of aggravated felons up 53% from the final year under President Barack Obama and 51% average during the Trump administration.
Apprehensions included some conducted under an initiative targeting sex offenders, resulting in the arrests of 495 people, compared to 194 under the previous year, ICE said.
Trump, whose administration took hundreds of measures to restrict both legal and illegal immigration, directed ICE to apprehend anyone who was in the country illegally. In June 2019, he tweeted that "next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States."
It didn't happen, though. Total deportations were higher under the first term of Obama than under Trump in part because many cities and states, opposed to his administration's approach to immigration, refused to cooperate with ICE on removals.
By the numbers: Stats that tell story of Biden's first year
63.5% vaccination rate
63.5% vaccination rate. Most Americans got jabbed. Countries with higher vaccination rates: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
3.9% jobless rate
3.9% jobless rate. The low unemployment rate is a big highlight of Biden's first year. He inherited a coronavirus-thrashed economy with unemployment at 6.4%. Employers added 6.4 million jobs last year as unemployment dropped well below the 4.6% that the Congressional Budget Office had anticipated in July for the end of 2021.
7% inflation
7% inflation. In running the economy hot, Biden got burned as inflation reached a nearly 40-year high. Higher prices led to disapproval of Biden's economic leadership. Gasoline and groceries cost more, and some notable economists said higher prices were a sign that Biden's relief package was too large.
$1 trillion
$1 trillion. The cost of Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law, which includes $550 billion in new spending. To get an agreement, Biden pulled back from the $2.3 trillion he initially proposed. He separately proposed $1.8 trillion for a package of social and climate initiatives, but that was modified and unable to clear the Senate. So Biden got about one-quarter of the $4 trillion in spending he proposed.
13 deaths
13 deaths. The number of U.S. troops who died in a suicide bombing at the gate of Kabul's airport during the U.S. evacuation of more than 124,000 people from Afghanistan. At least 169 Afghans were killed, with the evacuations leaving scores of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies behind. More than 2,460 U.S. service members died in Afghanistan over the course of the two-decade war.
1.78 million border crossings in the Southwest
1.78 million border crossings in the Southwest. Migrants began streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border once Biden became president. There were 1.78 million encounters with border agents during his first 10 full months, a four-fold increase compared with President Donald Trump's last 10 months in office.
20 natural disasters
20 natural disasters. There were 20 extreme weather and climate disasters that each caused damages in excess of $1 billion and killed a combined 688 people. These included a drought, two floods, 11 severe storms, four tropical cyclones, a wildfire and a winter storm. Adjusted for inflation, the U.S. has averaged 7.4 disasters annually since 1980 that caused $1 billion or more in losses.
24 states
24 states. Biden visited nearly half of America's 50 states during his first year. Excluding stops at his homes in Delaware, top destinations were Pennsylvania (seven times) and Michigan (five times). Both were key states in his 2020 election victory. Jill Biden went to 35 states.
41 federal judges and 103 days
41 federal judges. Biden had 41 judges confirmed to the bench during his first year in office, more than any of his recent predecessors at the same time in their presidencies. Of those, 80% are women, and 53% are people of color, according to the White House.
103 days. It took an average of 103 days for Biden nominees requiring Senate confirmation to be confirmed. That’s longer than the average for nominees in the first years of the previous six administrations and nearly three times longer than during Ronald Reagan’s first year in office, according to an analysis by the Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition.
9 news conferences
9 news conferences. There will be a 10th on Wednesday. Biden has been remarkably press shy. He held nine news conferences (six solo and three joint) and 22 media interviews during his first year. That’s fewer news conferences than any of his five immediate predecessors at the same point in their presidencies, and fewer media interviews than any of his recent predecessors.
32 “not a joke" references
32 “not a joke" references. It's one of Biden's favorite speech lines. Among the things he said were “not a joke”: Civil rights icons, labor unions that built the middle class, air pollution from Delaware chemical plants, climate change as a national security risk, California voters, Biden's disregard of polls on his economic agenda. Seriously.
