A record 3.3 million illegal immigrants were living freely in the country as of the end of September and awaiting immigration hearings, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE said Wednesday that it had to cope with hundreds of thousands more people than the previous year, forcing it to release many into the United States because there was not enough room, or in some cases legal authority, to hold everyone. Many arrived during the border crisis last spring.
As of the end of fiscal 2019 in September, the agency had 50,922 people in its custody compared to 3,274,244 on “nondetained dockets,” which is a separate group than those in the country seeking asylum. The 3.3 million figure compared to 2.6 million cases in fiscal 2018 and 2.4 million in fiscal 2017.
With 5,300 law enforcement officers across 24 field offices, [Emergency Removal Operations] does not have sufficient resources to effectively manage the sustained increase in nondetained cases,” the Department of Homeland Security agency wrote in the ERO annual report.
In fiscal 2019, nearly half a million people who traveled as part of a family were apprehended by Border Patrol after illegally crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. That figure is four times the number a year earlier and the highest on record.
Families are typically turned over to ICE, which holds people while it is decided whether they will be deported or released. Families have had to be freed from custody after 20 days due to a court ruling, which prompted the release of hundreds of thousands of people.
As a result of the increase, ICE said it has increasingly used its alternatives to detention program to track and monitor people scheduled for court appearances. Approximately 96,000 of the 3.2 million were enrolled in the program — up four-fold from 2014.
