As the Biden administration nears its end, ICE deportations in FY 2024 reach Trump-era levels.

ICE deportations reached levels comparable to the Trump era in Fiscal Year 2024, coinciding with a surge in the number of undocumented immigrants not in ICE custody.

In fiscal year 2024, ICE deported 271,484 illegal immigrants to 192 different countries. Of those, 32.7% had criminal histories, and 237 were known or suspected terrorists.

The number of deportations in FY 2020, the last year of the Trump administration and coinciding with the COVID-19 pandemic, was around 185,000, while in FY 2019, there were 267,000 deportations.

The number of illegal immigrants deported by ICE has decreased from 28,204 in FY 2022 to 44,255 in the previous fiscal year, and to 47,000 in the current fiscal year. These numbers exclude those encountered by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the border, which typically make up the majority of ICE deportations.

Nearly double the number of background checks conducted in FY 2024 compared to FY 2020, which was the last full year of the Trump administration, and FY 2019.

The migrant crisis and the release of individuals into the interior put a strain on ICE's resources, causing it to shift staff and attention to the southern border.

The report states that ERO has allocated significant personnel to support DHS in managing irregular migration at the Southwest Border, which has further depleted ERO's already limited resources.

In FY 2024, the number of arrests made by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) decreased.

"In FY 2024, ERO arrested 113,431 noncitizens, which is a 33.5% decrease from the previous year. Despite the decrease in arrests, ERO's resources were primarily focused on processing and removing noncitizens at the Southwest Border, limiting interior law enforcement actions. This focus on border cases affected routine interior enforcement operations."

The next administration plans to lift the limitations on ICE and increase both ICE arrests and deportations of those arrested by ICE as part of a "historic" mass deportation campaign.

Trump's 2024 campaign promise to address the migrant influx has already drawn resistance from some Democrats but also support from others in cities overwhelmed by it since 2021.

The ICE report highlights the challenge of dealing with illegal immigrants, as the number on ICE's non-detained docket has increased to nearly 7.7 million during the Biden administration, more than double the number when Trump left office.

Illegal immigrants in deportation proceedings who are not in ICE custody but may be in federal, state, or local custody or in forms of monitoring make up the non-detained docket.

Illegal immigrants who were caught and released at the border and are waiting for their court dates, as well as illegal aliens who have already been ordered deported by a DOJ immigration judge after already having their cases heard, are included in the group of individuals who are subject to removal from the country.

Over 1.4 million illegal immigrants in the US have final orders of removal, but only 1,470 are currently in ICE detention, according to a report by Fox. The report also revealed that there are more than 701,000 Venezuelan illegal immigrants on ICE's non-detained docket.

Despite a significant increase in the number of unaccompanied migrant children entering the U.S. during the Biden administration, the number of removals has remained relatively low, with only 411 children removed in FY 2024, an increase from the 212 in FY 2023. In comparison, more than 4,000 children were removed in FY 2020.