Federal immigration agents are arresting more than 400 immigrants daily, a sharp leap from last year that reflects one of President Trump’s most far-reaching campaign promises, the Washington Post reports. In Trump’s first 100 days in office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 41,318 immigrants, up 37.6 percent over the same period last year. Almost 3 out of 4 of those arrested have criminal records, including gang members and fugitives wanted for murder. The biggest increase by far is among immigrants with no criminal records. “This administration is fully implementing its mass-deportation agenda,” said Gregory Chen of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “They’re going after people who have lived here for a long time.”
The arrest increase is one of the Trump administration’s few victories on immigration this year, after federal judges halted parts of his entry ban and “sanctuary city” crackdown and Congress refused his initial requests to fund a border wall. Advocates for undocumented immigrants say the numbers will add to the fears of longtime and otherwise law-abiding residents who felt spared from deportation under the Obama administration. Acting ICE director Thomas Homan said the statistics show that agents still prioritize lawbreakers: 30,473 criminals were arrested from Jan. 22 to April 29, an 18 percent increase from the same period in 2016. Arrests of immigrants with no criminal records more than doubled to nearly 11,000, the fastest-growing category by far. “Will the number of noncriminal arrests and removals increase this year? Absolutely,” Homan said. “That’s enforcing the laws that are on the books.”