ICE Arrests 104K Illegal Aliens in 2020, Including 675 MS-13 Gang Members

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency arrested nearly 104,000 illegal aliens this year, including hundreds of MS-13 gang members who often arrive through the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program.

Between October 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020, ICE agents arrested 103,603 illegal aliens living in the United States — 90 percent of which had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges against them.

ICE placed detainers on 122,233 illegal aliens this year, which are requests by agents to local law enforcement agencies to hold an illegal alien in their custody until the suspect can be turned over to ICE for arrest and deportation. Sanctuary cities, counties, and states refuse to comply with detainers and instead free illegal aliens back into U.S. communities.

Of those arrested this year, 4,067 were known or suspected gang members. Of those gang members arrested, 675 were associates of the El Salvador-based MS-13 gang, which often traffics its recruits through the UAC program where unaccompanied minors are released into the U.S. interior after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

A total of 34 known or suspected illegal alien terrorists were among those arrested by ICE this year. ICE conducted nearly 24,000 at-large arrests, where agents take illegal aliens who are wanted for crimes or immigration violations into custody.

Vital to ICE’s arresting operations is the 287(g) program, where local law enforcement agencies sign agreements to help agents locate and arrest wanted illegal aliens in a streamlined fashion. ICE signed 150 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement agencies this year.

ICE conducted a number of arrest operations across various states this year including Operation Cross Check XI, which spanned from July to September and netted the arrest of more than 2,700 illegal aliens.

About 85 percent of the illegal aliens arrested in Operation Cross Check XI had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges with more than 5,800 criminal convictions and more than 3,200 pending criminal charges. Some of the convictions included homicide, assault, sex crimes, weapons violations, and robberies.

Today, there are anywhere between 11 million to 22 million illegal aliens living in the U.S.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.