ICE says nearly 180,000 non-citizens deliberately not detained, roaming free in US cities

In the second and third quarters of fiscal 2024, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents removed nearly 68,000 illegal border crossers, ICE says.

ICE claims the number “reflects a 69% increase over removals during the third quarter in fiscal year 2023, and is more than 140% of ICE removals for all fiscal year 2023.”

According to the latest data published by ICE, 179,937 illegal foreign nationals, who under current federal law are inadmissible and required to be removed, weren’t detained but were living freely in the U.S. through ICE’s “Alternatives to Detention” (ATD) program, as of June 2024.

Newly published data in ICE’s Enforcement Removal Operations dashboard covers fiscal 2021 through the third quarter of fiscal 2024. It includes arrests, detention, removals and enrollments in ICE’s ATD, created by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Congressional Republicans argue ATD is illegal and circumvents federal law, which requires inadmissible illegal foreign nationals to be detained and processed for removal.

Through ATD, illegal border crossers were processed to be released into the U.S. under certain conditions. 

In fiscal 2023, ICE began implementing four types of ATD monitoring. They include a SmartLINK Facial Matching program, which uses technology to allow “participants to report compliance via an app installed on a noncitizen’s own smartphone or a dedicated government-issued device;” GPS monitoring “to ensure compliance with conditions of release; checking in with ICE by making a phone call; and wearing wrist devices to provide “GPS monitoring, facial matching, and virtual case management functionality, including virtual check-ins and reminders.” ICE claims it provided a limited number of 50 wrist worn devices in the Denver region, where thousands were released.

The data is broken down by ICE Area of Responsibility (AOR), which includes states or regions of the country.

By AOR, the majority are illegally living in Texas, roughly 24,000. However, those AORs also include all of Oklahoma and New Mexico, according to the data.

By state, the greatest number illegally living in the U.S. are in California. The majority are in the San Francisco AOR, which covers the majority of the state (over 18,000), and Los Angeles AOR, which covers roughly the southern third of the state (nearly 15,000).

The next greatest number, nearly 19,000, are illegally living in the Chicago AOR, which includes several midwestern states, followed by nearly 14,000 in the Miami AOR, which includes the entire state of Florida; nearly 13,000 are in the Newark AOR, which covers all of New Jersey. The next greatest numbers are in the AORs of Seattle, which includes Oregon and Washington; New York City; Detroit, which covers two states; Salt Lake City, which covers multiple western states; Boston, which includes several New England states, and Philadelphia, which includes Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The overwhelming majority of ATD participants are using the SmartLINK Facial Matching program, according to the data.

The majority are citizens of Colombia (over 21,000), followed by Mexico (over 20,000), Venezuela (over 18,500), Nicaragua (over 17,000), Honduras (over 16,000), among others.

Those with criminal records and orders for removal from an immigration judge will be among the first to be processed for removal, according to a deportation plan to be implemented by President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, The Center Square reported.

The current administration claims that “detention is not necessary or appropriate” for all illegal border crossers. “The level of supervision and technology participants are assigned is based on their current immigration status, criminal history, compliance history, community or family ties, caregiver or provider status, and other humanitarian or medical conditions,” ICE states. Noncitizens were enrolled in ATD after they were apprehended by CBP or Border Patrol agents at the border, by ICE agents in the interior of the U.S., or during their removal proceedings, ICE says.

Homan argues detention is absolutely necessary and required because it is the law.

He also argues that preventing illegal entry saves lives, pointing to the increasing number of Americans killed by illegal border crossers after they were released into the country by the Biden administration, including through ATD.

Nationwide, law enforcement officials thousands of miles from the border have been arresting non-citizens only to later find out that they illegally entered the country, were processed and released wearing ankle monitors, and took them off before they allegedly raped and murdered women and girls, The Center Square reported.

The ATD data is separate from the more than 662,000 non-citizens with criminal histories identified by ICE to be deported, The Center Square reported. They include those convicted of, or charged with, homicide (14,914), sexual assault (20,061), assault (105,146), kidnapping (3,372), and commercialized sexual offenses, including sex trafficking (3,971).