The Trump administration has boosted arrests of unauthorized immigrants in Georgia and the Carolinas by 75 percent this year compared to last year, according to figures obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Between Jan. 20 and April 29, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made 4,246 apprehensions in its Atlanta area of operations, which includes Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. That is up from last year, when President Barack Obama was in office and there were 2,429 arrests.
And it exceeds the nationwide 38 percent increase in ICE arrests for the same time span. Since Donald Trump took office, 41,318 people have been arrested on civil immigration charges across the country, up from 30,028 during the same period last year.
Trump campaigned vigorously on cracking down on illegal immigration. And once he took office, the Republican signed a pair of executive orders to ratchet up enforcement.
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“These statistics reflect President Trump’s commitment to enforce our immigration laws fairly and across the board,” ICE acting director Thomas Homan said in a prepared statement this week.
