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Despite announced shifts in deportation priorities by the White House late last year, new data shows that in April fewer than one-third of the detainer requests sent to local police agencies by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were for immigrants convicted of a crime.
In a report issued Aug. 28 by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, immigration officials issued 7,993 detainers in April to dozens of police agencies, asking them to hold immigrants for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release so ICE agents can take them into custody.
Of the nearly 8,000 detainers issued, only 1,217 were issued for immigrants convicted of an aggravated felony.
And, nearly the same number of people were issued a detainer because they had a conviction for a misdemeanor or petty offense, according to TRAC, a nonpartisan research project supported by Syracuse University.
The remainder, or 68 percent, had "no criminal conviction of any type," when ICE issued a detainer, TRAC said.
This "contrasts sharply," TRAC said with the new enforcement paradigm issued by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson last November.
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