US deportations targeting more people with no crime records

US Border Patrol agents body search undocumented immigrants from Central America after capturing them in a grapefruit orchard on Thursday near McAllen, Texas. (AFP)

Central American immigrants turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents on February 22, 2018 near McAllen, Texas. (AFP)

SAN DIEGO: New government figures show people arrested by deportation officers increasingly have no criminal backgrounds, reflecting the Trump administration’s commitment to cast a wider net in its push to expel people in the US illegally.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday that 65 percent of the arrests its agents made from October to December were of people with criminal records.
That’s compared to 82 percent during the same period of 2016. Looked at another way, criminal arrests rose but arrests of non-criminals jumped at a much faster rate.
Overall, there were more than 39,000 deportation arrests from October to December, up from about 27,000 during the final full three months of the Obama administration.
The 43 percent surge in overall arrests is consistent with trends since Trump took office.