Raids in the United States: detention centers reach the “limit”; how can this affect operations?
The strategy driven by Donald Trump is close to surpassing what former President Joe Biden achieved in his last year.
More information: Warning: 5 tactics used by ICE to detect immigrants in the United States
The immigration policy of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, is close to achieving one of its first objectives: surpassing what his predecessor, Joe Biden, did.
According to information revealed by high officials of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained nearly 33,000 immigrants in the North American country, a number almost equivalent to what the Democratic former president achieved during his last fiscal year, 2024.
However, despite the goals achieved by the current U.S. government, ICE faces a problem that could represent a setback in its rapid growth: its detention centers are “overwhelmed”.
What will happen with ICE detentions?
As mentioned by a high official from ICE to CNN, the detention space of the agency is at 120% of its capacity: “We are at the limit. We are at 47,600”.
According to the same source, the number of detentions is a response to pressure exerted from the White House in previous weeks regarding the “decrease” in the number of immigration arrests, causing tense communication between both agencies.
However, currently, the excessive population of detainees could pose a problem for the development of President Donald Trump's anti-immigration strategy, so the agency is looking for ways to increase its space.
Despite this issue arising, the director of ICE, Todd Lyons, mentioned in a press conference on March 12th that these actions “excite” his agents and officials to continue fulfilling Trump's strategy.
“After 4 years in which they have not been allowed to do their job effectively, our agents and officials are excited to get to work and fulfill the agency's mission. I want to make it clear that ICE arrests in the first 50 days of President Trump's government are exceeding those under Biden's Government”, mentioned Lyons.
According to agency officials, in the first 50 days of the Republican administration, from January 20th to March 10th, a total of 32,809 arrests have been carried out, which are broken down as follows:
- 14,111 were convicted criminals
- 9,980 had pending criminal charges
- 8,718 had other immigration offenses
It is worth noting that a smaller number of detainees have been released by court order, medical conditions or humanitarian reasons, among others. However, the exact number of these releases was not disclosed.
*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence
