President Donald Trump’s mass deportations of unauthorized immigrants are flagging so badly that the numbers have actually slipped behind Joe Biden levels.
As the former president started thinking about packing away his signature blue tie, his agents got busy rounding up over 21,000 immigrants in November 2024 alone.
The new president’s no-nonsense border czar Tom Homan, meanwhile, has presided over a comparatively sluggish 14,000 arrests in the three weeks plus since Trump barreled back into the Oval Office, Axios reports.
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This has led to Trump getting increasingly “angry” and the trickle down pressure appears to be making Homan twitchy. So twitchy, in fact, that he even resorted to blaming the FBI on leaks that saw ICE targets get wise to upcoming raids.
However, numbers have probably dipped because less people from Latin and South America see it as useful to make a charge at the U.S. border right now, due to tighter controls and the high likelihood of being sent straight back where they came from. Homan himself claimed illegal border crossings have dropped by 92 percent since MAGA 2.0 kicked off on Jan. 20.
Between ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, some 21,130 individuals were arrested and booked into detention facilities in November. Homan et al would need to scoop up over 7,000 immigrants in less than a week to match this figure.
However, ICE and the government no longer appear to be publicly bragging about their numbers like they did in the first few weeks of Trump’s second White House stint. The White House last released a daily total on Feb. 4, with just 800 arrests reported. According to ICE figures, the highest daily arrest total was 1,100.
Meanwhile, NBC cited people close to Trump who said the president is growing “angry” at the state of play, and wants Homan to deliver 1,200 to 1,400 daily arrests.
Trump promised “millions and millions” of repatriations in an Inauguration Day speech. However, to deport just one million immigrants would mean that Trump’s administration would need to repatriate some 2,700 individuals daily for a full year.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, attempted some reputation salvaging, saying that the 14,000 figure doesn’t account for CBP arrests, but Homan has never used this excuse.
There is also doubt around whether the people stuffed into the near-capacity detention centers around the country have actually committed crimes, like Homan—and Trump—claim.
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a non profit that documents immigrant numbers, states that 60 percent or so of the 39,152 people held in ICE detention as of Dec. 29 had no criminal record at all.
But, Axios reported, Trump’s crackdown is also about changing the image of the U.S. as a safe haven and easy target for immigrants. “Trump’s immigration crackdown isn’t just about making arrests. It’s about choreography, photo ops, wardrobe changes and tough talk — all designed to discourage undocumented people from wanting to be in the U.S.," the title wrote.
A cocktail of dwindling funds, huge bills and there being no space to hold individuals have all contributed to Trump and Homan’s faltering repatriation progress.
