Illegals Arrested in Raids Released Back to US: What Went Wrong
Some migrants detained in Trump's immigration operation have been released and remain in the U.S. Shortages in detention centers and court orders have forced ICE to release migrants into surveillance programs, reports NBC News.
Photo: Jerome Cid | Dreamstime.com
The Trump administration has publicized federal arrests of more than 8000 immigrants since his inauguration, promising that those detained would be part of a historic mass deportation. But some of those detained have already been released and remain in the U.S. under a monitoring program, NBC News has learned from five people familiar with the matter.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump and his supporters have pushed immigration enforcement operations in metropolitan areas like Chicago and New York City, deploying multiple agents from multiple federal agencies in major cities to increase the number of arrests.
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But arresting large numbers of people inside the U.S. on immigration charges means that detainees need to be held somewhere. However, significant shortages in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers, as well as federal court orders prohibiting the indefinite detention of detainees, have forced the agency to release some of these people rather than hold them pending deportation.
ICE publishes arrest data daily on Platform X, but it does not disclose how many detainees have been released, how many remain in custody, or who has already been deported.
In a statement to NBC News, an ICE spokesperson acknowledged that federal court orders limit the agency's ability to hold people indefinitely if their home countries refuse to accept deportees, so some people have to be released.
“Federal law enforcement is committed to keeping our communities safe,” a department spokesman said. “In some cases, ICE is required to release certain detained aliens.”
Released migrants are placed under a surveillance program known as Alternatives to Detention. The program has been in place for more than a decade to track migrants as they move through the immigration system. ICE can track them with ankle or wrist bracelets and phone checks.
As he did in his first term, Trump pledged upon taking office as the 47th president to end the “catch and release” policy under which migrants apprehended at the southern border are released while their immigration cases are processed.
Trump’s ban on this principle appears to be in effect at the southern border, where few migrants go through the asylum process. But ICE has funding for only 41 beds nationwide, so it continues to release some migrants detained inside the country.
Fox News reported in December that the new Trump administration is aware of the shortage of space at ICE detention centers and is considering expanding the electronic wristband monitoring program.
ICE policy prioritizes immigrants who pose a public safety risk for detention, while officers are given discretion to release migrants without serious criminal records. There is no record of the Trump administration releasing anyone convicted of a felony.
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When deciding whether to detain, ICE officers also consider where immigrants come from, especially if their home countries refuse to accept them. For example, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States could not be deported, making them candidates for release if they did not pose a threat to public safety.
Trump announced on February 1 that Venezuela had agreed to take back its citizens who had immigrated to the United States illegally.
Other detainees could be released for medical reasons or if they are the sole caregivers of children, sources familiar with the decision-making process said.
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