Originally published by The New York Times
A top immigration official says people living in the country illegally have good reason to be worried about getting deported under President Donald Trump.
Thomas Homan, deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spoke Tuesday in Washington as the federal government announced that Border Patrol arrests plunged to a 45-year-low in the last fiscal year while arrests by deportation officers soared.
Homan says the Trump administration has cast a wider net when picking up people for deportation.
Administration officials say the decline in Border Patrol arrests to the lowest level since 1971 doesn't undercut justification for Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico.
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The federal government has provided the most complete statistical snapshot of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump. Border Patrol arrests plunged to a 45-year low while arrests by deportation officers soared.
Numbers released Tuesday show the Border Patrol made nearly 311,000 arrests during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, a decline of 25 percent from a year earlier and the lowest level since 1971. Despite the significant decline, arrests increased every month since May, largely families and unaccompanied children.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose officers pick up people for deportation away from the border, made more than 140,000 arrests, an increase of 25 percent from a year earlier. After Trump took office, ICE arrests surged 40 percent from the same period a year earlier.
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