US removed 270,000 migrants in a year: official figures

Weeks before Donald Trump takes office and threatens to deport millions of migrants, US immigration authorities deported more than 270,000 people last fiscal year, according to data released Thursday.

As the penultimate annual report under President Joe Biden, the number of removals is more than it has been in the past ten years, including during Trump’s first term in office.

In its report, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stated that the majority of those compelled to depart the United States had entered the country unlawfully through the southern border.

Approximately one-third of them were either charged with a crime or had a criminal conviction.

The time frame, which spanned 12 months to the end of September, mostly aligned with Trump’s presidential campaign, during which he made a strong point of cracking down on immigration.

When he assumes office on January 20, he promised to begin the biggest deportation campaign in US history.

Voters responded favorably to the pledge, which mostly centered on the unsupported assertion that immigrants commit more crimes than US citizens.

Trump has not provided many specifics about how the operation would be conducted, and analysis indicates that it would be expensive and unfeasible given the existing level of staffing.

“Every year, our workforce faces tremendous challenges — but every year, they meet those challenges head-on,” said ICE Deputy Director Patrick Lechleitner.

Illegal crossings surged after Biden took office, though declined sharply over the last year after his administration tightened rules on claiming asylum.

Estimates suggest between 11 and 15 million people live in the United States illegally.

Trump and his supporters insist the number is far higher.

Many of those in the country without authorization work and pay taxes, often performing difficult or dangerous jobs that citizens don’t want to do.

Opponents of Trump’s promised crackdown argue that if he attempts to deport illegal immigration on the scale he has proposed, the economy may suffer and that there will be a labor shortage in social services, housing, and agriculture.

Any such shortfall, according to economists, would raise prices and jeopardize one of Trump’s main election pledges to lower inflation.