Trump’s Immigration Police Have Already Arrested 41,000 Undocumented Immigrants

Roughly a quarter of them had no criminal convictions.

Charles Reed/AP

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Wednesday morning what many immigrants already knew: President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has resulted in a surge of arrests. In a splashy statement, ICE said its agents arrested more than 41,000 people in the 100 days since Trump signed his executive orders on immigration—a spike of nearly 40 percent when compared to the same period last year. “These statistics reflect President Trump’s commitment to enforce our immigration laws fairly and across the board,” the statement reads.

The ICE statement reported that the majority were “convicted criminals, with offenses ranging from homicide and assault to sexual abuse and drug-related charges,” listing anecdotes of immigrants who had committed violent crimes. But it also notes that roughly 11,000 of the immigrants arrested had no criminal convictions—up from about 4,200 at this time a year ago. (The Washington Post reported late last month that half of those apprehended so far during Trump’s presidency had no criminal record or were convicted only of traffic violations.)

During his presidency, Barack Obama was heavily criticized for deporting large numbers of immigrants without criminal records who were apprehended along the US-Mexico border, including thousands of women and children fleeing gang violence in Central America. The latest ICE stats have advocates particularly worried that arrests are increasingly happening away from the border, in the country’s interior—and, as Human Rights Watch senior researcher Grace Meng tweeted, “interior arrests means lots more families being torn apart.”
 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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