DHS releases end of year statistics

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released its fiscal year (FY) 2014 enforcement statistics from the DHS Office of Immigration Statistics, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on December 19. In a continued focus by Secretary Johnson to promote transparency and timely reporting to Congress and the public, for the first time this year, ICE, CBP, and DHS’s consolidated statistics are all being reported and released together.

In FY 2014, DHS conducted a total of 577,295 removals and returns, including 414,481 removals and 162,814 returns. ICE had a total of 315,943 removals or returns, and CBP made 486,651 apprehensions. These figures reflect the Department’s commitment to border security and public safety by focusing on smart and effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of convicted criminals and recent border entrants. Owing in large measure to the rise in illegal migration from Central America this past year, both apprehensions and removals of Guatemalan, Honduran, and El Salvadorian nationals were up. Further, as ICE continues to refine its enforcement priorities to ensure that the agency focuses its resources on public safety and national security threats, 85 percent of ICE’s FY 2014 removals and returns from the interior of the United States were of convicted criminals.

“DHS’s 2014 year-end enforcement statistics demonstrate that our front line officers and agents continue to execute their critical mission in a smart and effective way, focusing our resources on convicted criminals and those attempting to illegally cross our nation’s borders,” said Secretary Johnson. “This year’s statistics are informed by a number of complex and shifting factors, most notably the 68 percent increase in migration from countries other than Mexico, predominately from Central America, and a 14 percent drop in Mexican migration since fiscal year 2013. The unprecedented surge of unaccompanied children and families last summer, as well as the increasing number of jurisdictions declining to honor ICE detainers, also impacted DHS enforcement operations. Notwithstanding these challenges, DHS components have adjusted and continue to successfully secure our borders and protect our communities.”

Key findings in FY 2014:

• The Border Patrol made 486,651 apprehensions nationwide, nearly all of which were along the southwest border; 468,407 of those apprehensions were of individuals from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
• 98 percent of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations’ (ERO) FY 2014 removals and returns met one or more of ICE’s civil immigration enforcement priorities.
• 85 percent of all interior ICE removals and returns involved individuals who had been previously convicted of a crime; this number is up significantly from FY 2011 when it was just 67 percent.
• The number of Mexican nationals that ICE removed or returned decreased, while the number of Guatemalan, Honduran, and El Salvadorian removals or returns increased.
• State and local law enforcement declined to honor 10,182 ICE detainers, which required ICE to expend additional resources to develop and execute operations to attempt to locate and arrest at-large criminal aliens.

Additional information is available here.

Source: DHS