Trump's first 100 days: Immigration arrests up but deportations down

Donald Trump's rhetoric on immigration rightfully has had many people concerned, especially those undocumented immigrants living in the country and those who preferred comprehensive immigration reform. Some could have taken solace in the hopes that President Trump's focus on deporting immigrants who commit serious crimes would be his priority. If that were the case, his policy would not look at that different from Obama. But, even there, many of the millions deported during the Obama years had committed crimes no more dangerous than entering the country twice and various traffic violations (granted some more egregious than others).

We are only now getting some data in that speaks to how much of a shift there has been on the immigration front.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 21,362 immigrants, mostly convicted criminals, from January through mid-March, compared to 16,104 during the same period last year, according to statistics requested by The Washington Post.

Arrests of immigrants with no criminal records more than doubled to 5,441, the clearest sign yet that President Trump has ditched his predecessor’s protective stance toward most of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

At this point, arrests of criminal and noncriminal immigrants are up compared to the last two years but lower than they were in 2014. The Obama numbers for 2015 and 2016 decreased after a November 2014 memo from Homeland Security that "restricted immigration arrests mainly to criminals and those who recently crossed the U.S. border."

While the Maria Saccheti does not speak directly to the issue in this article, that most likely means that many of those newly arrested have deep roots in our country. They are members of our churches, our co-workers, and the parents of our children's friends. They are not exactly the criminals the President wants you to believe that they are.

While arrests are back up, deportations are not. Deportations during the first quarter of the year were down 1.2 percent compared to the same time period last year. No wonder private prison stocks took off after President Trump's election.