U.S. immigration authorities last year deported the largest number of undocumented immigrants in nearly a decade, surpassing Donald Trump's first-term record.
More than 271,000 immigrants were deported from the United States during the last fiscal year, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
The ICE report comes just weeks before President-elect Trump takes office, who plans to make mass deportations a cornerstone of his new administration.
President Joe Biden had pledged in 2021 to suspend expulsions, but his administration ended up extending it following an increase in border crossings.
In the recently released reportICE said the sharp increase in deportations over the last fiscal year was partly the result of a streamlined process.
Other deportation flights were directed to more distant destinations, including Africa and Asia, which had not accepted U.S. deportations for years, the agency said.
The majority of expulsions in fiscal year 2024 involved migrants apprehended by border authorities, compared to those arrested by ICE inside the United States.
About 82 percent of the 271,000 immigrants deported that year were arrested by border agents.
President-elect Trump has pledged to launch “the largest deportation operation in history” when he returns to office on January 20.
These promises, however, risk being confronted huge logistical and financial challenges.
Before his decisive victory over Biden in November, Trump spent much of his election campaign attacking the White House's border policies.
Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Reuters that Biden's deportations were insignificant compared to the high levels of illegal immigration during his presidency.
“On day one, President Trump will fix the immigration and national security nightmare created by Joe Biden by launching the largest mass deportation of illegal criminals in U.S. history,” he said. she declared.
The number of migrant encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border reached a record high in December 2023, but has declined significantly, particularly in recent months, and is now at an all-time low since July 2020, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
He also attributes the increase in deportations to improved diplomatic efforts to convince countries to take back more deportees.
Mexican authorities have also increasingly cracked down on the flow of migrants heading north toward the U.S. border.
In June, President Biden issued an executive order sharply limiting asylum, which, with the help of Mexico, led to a decrease in illegal border crossings.
Since then, the number of people released by the U.S. Border Patrol pending immigration court proceedings has decreased by 70%, the agency said.
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