Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are touting numbers for the end of fiscal year 2017, which have shown both a decrease in border apprehensions and a rise in arrests of illegal aliens in the nation’s interior.Long Island sees an 83 percent increase in
Among those numbers are, according to DHS officials, a 92 percent increase in the arrests of criminal aliens and a 83 percent increase in the arrests of MS-13, an El Salvador-based gang with an acknowledged presence on Long Island. This past year, both President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jefferson Sessions have made highly-publicized visits to Suffolk County to underscore the seriousness of MS-13 actively on Long Island.
According to ICE officials, 796 MS-13 suspected gang members were arrested this fiscal year, an increase from 434 arrests in the previous year. Since last May, media outlets report that 345 MS-13-related arrests have been made on Long Island alone.
Overall, ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) made 4,818 criminal arrests related to gang activity and 892 administrative arrests as a result of gang investigations. ERO administratively arrested 5,225 gang members and associates.
In fiscal year 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported 310,531 apprehensions nationwide, 303,916 of which were along the Southwest border. For that same year, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) conducted 143,470 arrests and 226,119 removals from the nation’s interior. From the start of the Trump administration on Jan. 20, 2017 through the end of the fiscal year in October 2107, ERO made 110,568 arrests compared to 77,806 in fiscal year 2016, an increase of 40 percent.
“These results are proof of what the men and women of ICE can accomplish when they are empowered to fulfill their mission,” said Thomas Homan, ICE deputy director. “We need to maintain this momentum by matching the dedication and drive of our personnel with the resources they need to perform at even higher levels. We need to confront and address misguided policies and loopholes that only serve as a pull factor for illegal immigration. We must continue to target violent gangs like MS-13, and prevent them from rebuilding what we have begun to dismantle. Finally, we need to find a solution to the dangerous sanctuary city policies and the politicians who needlessly risk innocent lives to protect criminals who are illegally present in the United States.”
