ICE arrests of people without criminal records surge in Georgia
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests of people without criminal charges or convictions in Georgia and nationwide surged in June, newly obtained data shows.
Why it matters: The numbers illustrate a major shift that came soon after the Trump administration tripled ICE's arrest quota.
Driving the news: People in Georgia without criminal charges or convictions made up 42% of daily ICE arrests in early June, up from about 23% in early May, before the quota increase.
By the numbers: In January, ICE arrested 383 people in Georgia, of whom 14% had no criminal charges or convictions, an Axios analysis found.
- By June, 42% of the 920 people ICE arrested in the state had no criminal charge.
How it works: That's according to agency data obtained by the UC Berkeley School of Law's Deportation Data Project via Freedom of Information Act requests, and based on seven-day trailing averages.
Context: In early June, the average daily detainee population of the Stewart Detention Center near the Alabama border exceeded its 1,752-resident capacity, the AJC reported.
On June 5, the Charlton County Commission approved plans to expand the Folkston ICE Processing Center near the Florida state line to house 3,000 detainees, the Georgia Recorder reported.
- Once complete, the facility will be the nation's largest immigrant jail.
Zoom out: Nationwide, people without criminal charges or convictions made up an average of 47% of daily ICE arrests in early June, more than double in early May, before the quota increase.
- As of June 26 — the most recent data available — ICE was reporting an average of 930 daily arrests, about 42% of which involved people without charges or convictions.
The big picture: The spike in non-criminal ICE arrests came despite the Trump administration's claimed focus on criminals living in the country illegally.
- And it happened just after the Trump administration told ICE to arrest at least 3,000 people daily, up from 1,000.
Context: Being in the U.S. illegally is a civil, not criminal, violation.
What they're saying: "The media continues to peddle this FALSE narrative that ICE is not targeting criminal illegal aliens," Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement emailed to Axios.
- "The official data tells the true story: 70% of ICE arrests were criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges.
In addition, McLaughlin said, "many" undocumented immigrants "categorized as 'non-criminals' are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gang members and more — they just don't have a rap sheet in the U.S."
- "This deceptive 'non-criminal' categorization is devoid of reality and misleads the American public."
A DHS spokesperson did not immediately answer Axios' follow-up question about the source of the 70% figure.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that it is the Stewart Detention Center near the Alabama border (not Fort Stewart, which has no immigrant detention center) that has reportedly exceeded its capacity.