U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is releasing detainees back into the United States, sometimes dozens per day, according to statistics obtained by CBS News.
This comes in stark contrast to the White House’s claims that ICE is arresting hundreds of “illegal immigrant criminals” on a daily basis.
According to government documents, facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border have a 38,521-bed capacity. At the time of the report, the facilities housed 42,000 immigrants.
On Monday alone, ICE released 160 detainees. Following in the footsteps of Democrats’ solution to cramped border facilities, officials are releasing undocumented immigrants with ankle monitors to free up space.
Daily Kos contacted ICE and CBP for comment but did not hear back.
In a rush to solve the capacity issue, the Trump administration is turning to a few other eyebrow-raising solutions.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump sent 10 Tren de Aragua gang members to Guantanamo Bay, the infamous military prison in Cuba known for housing terrorists.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are also reportedly eyeing a potential deal with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to ship convicted immigrants and U.S. citizens to a prison facility in the Central American country.
Acknowledging that the deportation of U.S. citizens is highly illegal, Trump still spoke highly of the potential deal on Tuesday.
"We'll have to find that out legally. I'm just saying if we had the legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat,” he said.
Meanwhile, many of the undocumented immigrants being targeted by ICE do not, in fact, have prior criminal records.
NBC News reported, of the 1,200 people arrested by ICE in a single day, at least 566 had not committed any crimes and were only arrested because they lacked authorization to remain in the United States.
When asked last week how many of the people arrested had a criminal record, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant stance.
"All of them,” she said, “because they illegally broke our nation's laws, and, therefore, they are criminals, as far as this administration goes."
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