The Homeland Security Department agency entrusted with removing illegal immigrants is providing a staggering portrait of America’s border crisis, revealing the backlog of aliens inside the United States awaiting decisions has nearly doubled under President Joe Biden to more than 6 million while arrests of suspected terrorists and violent offenders have also exploded.
The year-end report from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement released Friday showed nearly every measure of illegal immigration rose substantially in 2023, candidly admitting the southern border’s being overrun by millions of illegal crossers has taken a major toll on the agency.
“While ICE carefully prioritized its resources to meet these evolving mission needs and agency personnel continued to perform at a high standard, these increased demands have strained a workforce that has remained relatively static for the past decade,” the report declared.
The report offered warning signs for both liberals who support loosened immigration enforcement and conservatives who are worried the nation’s security is being jeopardized by Biden’s policies, which have lured millions into the country and overwhelmed cities like Chicago thousands of miles from the southern border.
Liberal activists are certain to be alarmed by the number of illegal aliens kept in detention: ICE reported the number exploded 40.1% from 26,299 last year to 36,845 at the end of the 2023 fiscal year that finished Sept. 30.
Meanwhile, the number of illegal aliens permitted into the country without being detained, usually with court dates far in the future, leapt 30.3 percent in 2023 to more than 6.2 million, nearly double the 3.26 million total in the last year of Donald Trump’s presidency. The report said the vast majority of that total came from the Southwest border where illegal crossings have surged to as many as 12,000 or more a day.
Administrative arrests rose sharply in 2023 to 170,590, with more than 43% of those apprehended having some sort of criminal conviction or pending charges. The figures confirm claims by Trump during his 2024 campaign that large numbers of illegal immigrants come with criminal baggage.
“[T]here were 290,178 charges and convictions for an average of four per individual,” the report noted. “These included many serious charges or convictions for offenses, such as 1,713 charges or convictions for homicide; 1,655 for kidnapping; 4,390 sexual assaults; 33,209 assaults; 3,097 robberies; 6,964 burglaries; and 7,520 weapons offenses.”
Expulsions of high-risk illegal immigrants by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) also jumped by historic proportions, the report said. “In FY 2023, ERO removed 3,406 known or suspected gang members, an increase of 27.7% compared to FY 2022, and 139 known or suspected terrorists, a 148.2% increase compared to FY 2022,” it noted.
Overall, ICE completed 142,580 deportations in 2023, nearly doubling the prior year’s tally. But the number is still a small fraction of the nearly 2.5 million illegal crossers encountered at the southern border alone. The agency also removed only 212 unaccompanied minors in FY 23, despite 137,275 arriving at the southern border, the report showed.
Beyond the human toll endured by ICE agents and border patrol officers, the report also gave glimpses of the growing cost of the illegal immigration wave for taxpayers.
The report revealed the office paying for health care for detained and non-detained illegal aliens spent nearly $352 million in 2023.
The ICE report is certain to give House Republicans more ammunition in their pursuit to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas when they return to work in January.
“This administration has completely neglected our Southwest border,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said Friday amid reports that December was on track to set a single month records for illegal immigration at more than 275,000 crossers.
Republicans like Green have ramped up arguments that the Biden administration is creating the crisis intentionally, most recently citing a decision to reopen certain rail crossings where aliens have gained entry without creating a solution to stop new unlawful entries.
“Re-opening these rail crossings and border bridges without taking steps to prevent illegal crossings proves that this administration is intentionally continuing this border crisis,” Green said Friday on the X social media platform.
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik also weighed in, responding to the record numbers of border crossings. “Despite these historic numbers, Extreme Democrats continue to turn a blind eye to our Border Crisis,” she wrote Friday.