Immigrants Deported, Includes 4,000 Known and Suspected Cartel Members
A new report from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed that more than 4,000 known or suspected gang members this year were deported, including those members of MS-13 gang.
The 2020 ICE report also showed that a total of 185,884 immigrants were deported during U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, according to a Fox News report.
Related story: Notorious Mexican Cartel Leader Using Children as Shields in Gang War
In that number, 64 percent had either criminal conviction or criminal charges.
A total of 399,235 were illegal immigrants. The report added that 4,276 were known or suspected gang members.
This includes 675 known or believed to have been a member of the brutal gang MS-13. In addition, 31 were known or suspected terrorist.
Included in the high-profile cases was the September removal of Saudin Agani. Agani was connected to the suspect who attacked two New York City cops earlier this year.
ICE has faced challenges and calls for it to be abolished through an Abolish ICE movement.
This included congressional Democratic lawmakers and even former presidential candidates.
ICE officials have pushed back against that movement, also to the sanctuary cities that forbid cooperation with ICE.
Officials said that the huge majority of those they arrest and deport have criminal record and have frequently noted some of the worst offenders they have deported.
Deportations
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has vowed to implement a 100-day moratorium on deportations by ICE.
Biden has also promised to overthrow practices when it comes to the targeting and deporting those in the country illegally.
Top officials under the incoming Biden administration cautioned that some of Trump's immigration policies will take time, according to another Fox News report.
The officials added that immigrants should not expect that the border will fully open immediately.
Biden's incoming domestic policy and national security advisers, Susan Rice and Jake Sullivan, said that changes to the U.S. immigration system will not take place right away.
Rice said that they will be able to take some steps to change policies right away.
"Others will take time to put in place, and the situation at the border will not transform overnight due in large part to the damage done over the last four years. But we are committed to addressing it in full," Rice was quoted on a report.
Biden specifically vowed to end the Migrant Protection Protocols on his first day in the office.
The policy is also known as Remain-in-Mexico policy. More than 60,000 immigrants have been returned to Mexico under this policy.
This until their hearings are held in tent courts at the border.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security's deportation has plummeted about 30 percent over the past year officials said, as reported by Washington Times.
Officials blamed the decrease to the threat of the pandemic for sapping them the ability find the illegal immigrants in the country.
Related story: Child Deportations Surge and Expedited in the Middle of Pandemic, but Speed-Up Plans Date since 2017
ICE said it has been focused on trying to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The agency also used some of its charter flight capacity to pick up U.S. individuals stranded in other countries during the worldwide travel slowdown during the start of the pandemic.
The charter flight capacity is generally used for deportations. Acting ICE Director Tony Pham said that they helped retrieved more than 1,000 people to the U.S.