The Patriot Post® · Number of Criminal Illegals Arrested Increased 11% in FY2018

In fiscal year 2018, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 158,581 illegal aliens, which is an 11% increase from FY2017. Of those arrested illegals, a total of 138,117 had either criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. CNS News reports, “In those cases, there were 80,730 DUI’s; 76,585 dangerous drugs offenses; 6,888 sex offenses; 5,350 sexual assault charges; 2,085 kidnapping charges/convictions; and 2,028 murder offenses.” That includes an illegal deported in 2014 but who snuck back into the country and then went on his own “personal reign of terror” Monday, killing one person and shooting others before dying himself in a high-speed chase with authorities.

Between ICE and Customs and Border Protection, the two agencies removed 256,085 criminal illegal aliens in FY2018, including more than 1,000 convicted murders. This total represents a 13.25% increase over last year’s total and the highest number of removals since 2014.

The top four countries from which the majority of these illegal criminal aliens originated were Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Given the violence of drug cartels, it’s unsurprising that Mexico was the leading country of origin with 141,045 removals. The other three nations are the origin points of the recent caravans.

The New American notes that “the Trump administration has more than doubled the number of gang removals over the last year of the Obama administration,” and further adds that the numbers show “that President Trump is right in his assessment of illegal aliens in general — that many of them are dangerous criminals.”

The fact is that no matter how many illegal aliens don’t engage in criminal activity beyond illegally entering the U.S., an outsized percentage of illegal aliens do.