 |
|
A Syracuse University research center released a new report Wednesday indicating that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s use of immigrant detainers shot up by almost 30 percent after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, but is still well below peak levels in 2011.
The report, authored by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, draws from more than 2 million ICE detainers issued from October 2002 to March attained via more than 50 Freedom of Information Act requests. In March, shortly after Trump took office, ICE prepared 13,971 detainers, which was a 31.7 percent increase from January, but only half the detainers issued in March 2011.
TRAC has also filed three lawsuits, most recently in June, to extract more recent information related to the detainers, such as the detainees’ criminal records, that ICE is now withholding, but which was previously publicly available. As a result, the center could not ascertain how many detainers targeted individuals without criminal records or with minor offenses, as well as how many individuals ICE took into custody or finally deported.
“Detainer usage was severely cut back in 2014 when much more targeted and selective enforcement policies were instituted by the Obama administration,” the report states. “Now the Trump administration has resurrected widespread use of detainers, and is pressuring local law enforcement agencies to comply.”
|
|
|
|
