A year-end report from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) revealed that more than 6 million illegal immigrants are on the non-detained docket.
The number is up more than 30% from FY 2022, when 4.7 million migrants were featured on the docket.
“In FY 2023, the non-detained docket climbed by 30.3% from 4.7 million noncitizens in FY 2022 to more than 6.2 million noncitizens in FY 2023,” according to the report. “Comparatively, the non-detained was at 3.26 million in FY 2020 and 3.6 million in FY 2021.”
“While ICE carefully prioritized its resources to meet these evolving mission needs and agency personnel continued to perform at a high standard, these increased demands have strained a workforce that has remained relatively static for the past decade,” the report says.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested over 30,000 individuals and “seized over 1.2 million pounds of narcotics, over $949 million in criminally derived currency and assets, and over $148 million in virtual currency.”
Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) conducted “170,590 administrative arrests, which is a 19.5% increase over last year, and 91,497 at-large arrests for a 7.2% increase compared to FY 2022.”
The report also described several programs developed by ICE.
One of the programs offered migrants a Secure Docket Card (SDC), which “facilitates reliable access to commonly lost or damaged immigration-related paperwork.”
The card allows noncitizens “access to commonly used documents and services,” the report explains, noting that the project is designed to “ease ICE personnel workload when encountering noncitizens with the card and decrease the burden on noncitizens when interacting with ICE, including the facilitation of remote reporting for certain low-risk populations.”
An ICE spokesperson said in a statement that the SDC is a “pilot program that would modernize documentation provided to some noncitizens.”
“While the specifics of the program are under development, it is important to note the secure card will not be an official form of federal identification. The secure card will indicate it is for use by DHS agencies and would be provided only after national security background checks have been performed,” they continued, adding, “Currently, noncitizens receive paper documents from the federal government about their immigration status. Paper documents pose a security risk, are easily lost, and degrade rapidly in real-world use, creating inefficiencies for the government and noncitizens.”
The New York Post reported that a record number of migrants were encountered in December.
More than 276,000 were encountered, up 262% from December 2020.
Data from Customs and Border Patrol revealed that in fiscal year 2023, 172 individuals on the terror watchlist were encountered by U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Forty-nine individuals have already been encountered since the beginning of fiscal year 2024, according to the data.
