A total of 16,368 people were apprehended by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents in San Diego County between Jan. 20 and April 1 this year, the agency revealed Wednesday.
The data came in a letter response to Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, who expressed concerns about ICE's tactics during operations in Oceanside and requested information about the warrants involved and the detainees' criminal records. The latter was not provided.
"ICE possesses the unambiguous statutory authority to arrest and remove aliens unlawfully present in the United States, no matter the extent of their criminal histories," the letter from the agency read. "Such authority derives from the laws passed by Congress. These laws have stood for decades and been amended and strengthened over the years by bipartisan majorities. ICE enforces immigration law against all removable aliens, and the commission of violent crimes is not a prerequisite for enforcement. Being unlawfully present in the United States is itself a violation of federal law."
President Donald Trump had previously pledged to go after the "worst of the worst" immigrants in the country illegally, but many of those being arrested, put in ICE camps and deported have committed a civil misdemeanor and no other offenses, The Guardian reported in February.
"I suspect these high numbers are part of [White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy] Stephen Miller's demands to meet high detention quotas. What this letter does not answer is how many detainees and removals had a criminal record. That is a question that deserves an answer," Levin said. "I expect ICE to keep even more data than this, and they need to be able to provide information on where they are detaining individuals and why. This type of oversight -- requiring ICE to do public reporting -- is something I will continue to advocate for. This letter paints only half the picture, not a full one."
Of the more than 16,000 removals by ICE in the first quarter of the year, 10,847 were Mexican nationals, 996 from Guatemala and 544 from Venezuela with smaller figures from 116 other countries.