Arrests and deportations have risen sharply in Georgia and the Carolinas amid the Trump administration’s clampdown on illegal immigration, according to new figures the government released Tuesday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made 13,551 arrests during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 in its Atlanta area of operations, which includes Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. That is up 52 percent from the previous fiscal year. But it is down 23 percent from fiscal year 2013, when President Barack Obama was in office and ICE made 17,600 arrests. Obama drew the derisive nickname “deporter in chief” for his administration’s record numbers of expulsions.
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Meanwhile, ICE carried out 12,571 deportations from its Atlanta area of operations in fiscal year 2017, or more than double the number of removals from the previous fiscal year, when 5,770 expulsions were recorded. The Obama administration reported 14,744 deportations in fiscal year 2013.
“This is positive progress,” ICE Acting Director Tom Homan told reporters in Washington Tuesday morning. “More needs to be done.”
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