Impact of immigration policy
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Maybe shoulda thought of that…
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The Trump administration aggressively publicized the arrests of more than 8,000 immigrants by federal agents since Inauguration Day, with the promise that those detained would be part of a historic mass deportation. But NBC News has learned that some have already been released back into the United States on a monitoring program, according to five sources familiar with the operations.
Since he took office, President Donald Trump and his allies have promoted immigration operations in cities like Chicago and New York, where agents across federal agencies were called in to increase the number of arrests.
But arresting more people inside the United States on allegations of immigration violations means they need to be held somewhere. And significant space constraints in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities — and federal court orders forbidding indefinite detention — have forced the agency to release some of those arrested in the roundups rather than hold them until deportation.
ICE posts arrest figures daily on X, but it does not disclose how many of those arrested are released, remain in detention or have been deported.
In a statement to NBC News, an ICE spokesperson acknowledged federal court cases limit ICE from detaining people indefinitely if their countries refuse to take them back, which can lead ICE to release them.
“The agency’s federal law enforcement officers do everything they can to keep our communities safe,” the spokesperson said. “In some cases, ICE is required to release certain arrested aliens from custody.”
Those released are being kept on a monitoring program known as Alternatives to Detention, the five sources familiar with the releases said, which has for more than a decade been used to keep track of where migrants are as they make their way through the immigration system. ICE can track them by ankle monitors or wrist bands or through telephonic check-ins.
As he did in his first administration, Trump vowed when he took office last month to end so-called catch-and-release policies under which migrants apprehended at the southern border are released back into the United States while their immigration cases are pending.
Trump’s ban on “catch and release” appears to be in effect at the southern border, where few migrants are being processed for asylum claims. But because ICE is funded for only 41,500 beds nationwide, it is still releasing some migrants who were detained in the interior of the country.
Fox News reported in December that the incoming Trump administration was aware of the capacity issues in ICE detention and was considering expanding the ankle monitor program.
ICE policy prioritizes immigrants deemed to be public safety threats for detention and allows officers to use their discretion when they decide to release migrants who do not have serious criminal convictions. There are no indications that the Trump administration has released anyone convicted of a serious crime.
When they decide who should be detained, ICE officers also consider whether immigrants come from countries that refuse to take them back. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the United States, for example, could not be deported and were considered for release if they were not deemed threats to public safety.
On Saturday, Trump announced that Venezuela had agreed to take back its nationals who had emigrated to the United States.
Other detainees may be released for medical reasons or if they are the only caretakers of children, three sources familiar with the decisions said.
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El Salvador has offered to take in criminals deported from the US, including those with US citizenship, and house them in its mega-jail.
The deal was announced after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele during his visit to the central American nation.
Bukele - whose iron-fist approach to gangs has won him plaudits from voters but been heavily criticised by human rights groups - said he had offered the US "the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system".
Rubio said the US was "profoundly grateful" to Bukele, adding that "no country's ever made an offer of friendship such as this".
Rubio told reporters: "He has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those with US citizenship and legal residency."
Referring to two of the region's most notorious transnational crime gangs, Rubio added that El Salvador would also take in deported migrants and "criminals from any nationality, be the MS-13 or Tren de Aragua".
Bukele later confirmed the offer on X, specifying that "we are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee".
He added that "the fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison sustainable".
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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El Salvador has offered to take in criminals deported from the US, including those with US citizenship, and house them in its mega-jail.
The deal was announced after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele during his visit to the central American nation.
Bukele - whose iron-fist approach to gangs has won him plaudits from voters but been heavily criticised by human rights groups - said he had offered the US "the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system".
Rubio said the US was "profoundly grateful" to Bukele, adding that "no country's ever made an offer of friendship such as this".
Rubio told reporters: "He has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those with US citizenship and legal residency."
Referring to two of the region's most notorious transnational crime gangs, Rubio added that El Salvador would also take in deported migrants and "criminals from any nationality, be the MS-13 or Tren de Aragua".
Bukele later confirmed the offer on X, specifying that "we are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee".
He added that "the fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison sustainable".
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El Salvador has offered to take in criminals deported from the US, including those with US citizenship, and house them in its mega-jail.
The deal was announced after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele during his visit to the central American nation.
Bukele - whose iron-fist approach to gangs has won him plaudits from voters but been heavily criticised by human rights groups - said he had offered the US "the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system".
Rubio said the US was "profoundly grateful" to Bukele, adding that "no country's ever made an offer of friendship such as this".
Rubio told reporters: "He has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those with US citizenship and legal residency."
Referring to two of the region's most notorious transnational crime gangs, Rubio added that El Salvador would also take in deported migrants and "criminals from any nationality, be the MS-13 or Tren de Aragua".
Bukele later confirmed the offer on X, specifying that "we are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted US citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee".
He added that "the fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison sustainable".
Add this.
"the fee would be relatively low for the US but significant for us, making our entire prison sustainable".
And this (from a separate NPR article):
Human rights activists have warned that El Salvador lacks a consistent policy for the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees and that such an agreement might not be limited to violent criminals.
What could possibly go wrong?
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Running into a few problems with immigration roundups...asking for a bit more money...
President Trump's vow to deport "millions and millions" of unauthorized immigrants is meeting harsh reality — already stretching the limits of the government's resources, less than four weeks into the new administration.
Why it matters: A lack of funds, detention space, officers and infrastructure to handle arrested immigrants is frustrating many involved in the effort — and made goals such as 1 million deportations this year seem unrealistic.
Zoom in: That urgency led the White House to ask Congress for an immediate infusion of $175 billion to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acquire more detention space, boost staff and address other needs.
"At the end of the day, we've gotta just spend money," Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said in a brief interview at the White House. "Unfortunately the American taxpayers are going to have to pay the bill on this."
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/13/trump-immigration-deportation-obstacles
Same taxpayers who will understand the near term effects of tariffs?
Suuuure....
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Zoom in: That urgency led the White House to ask Congress for an immediate infusion of $175 billion to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acquire more detention space, boost staff and address other needs.
$175 Billion.
Seems like a lot.
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Immigration raids could 'devastate' construction in the United States, says industry leader
Industries that rely on workers who are in the country without legal status, like agriculture, restaurants and construction, are taking notice.
The Pew Research Center said, as of 2017, 12% of workers in the construction industry were immigrants in the country with authorization. In 2021, the Center for American Progress estimated that among construction laborers, 23% don't have legal status.
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He’s sundowning again.
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TACOs for everyone! Well, at least for the people he thinks voted for him and whose businesses rely on immigrant workers....
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has told immigration officials to largely pause raids and arrests in the agricultural industry, hotels and restaurants, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The report cited an internal email and three U.S. officials with knowledge of the guidance."Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels,” Tatum King, a senior official at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in guidance to regional leaders of the department, the Times added.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the guidance to the Times and said: “We will follow the president’s direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America’s streets,”
Reuters:
https://archive.is/Tn1t8#selection-1229.20-1249.225
Maybe this will bring some logic and sanity to this process. Sad that it had to come to ICE agents chasing the strawberry picker through a field before the administration got the message...
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Ice’s ‘inhumane’ arrest of well-known vineyard manager shakes Oregon wine industry
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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Rotten tomatoes.
Tony DiMare’s family owns 4,000 acres of tomato farms across Florida and California. Sadly, his Florida crops are not looking good — mowed over and left to rot, like tomato vines across the state.
But it’s not growing conditions that are the problem. It’s economic ones.
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The family of a Canadian national who supported Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations of immigrants say they are feeling betrayed after federal agents recently detained the woman in California while she interviewed for permanent US residency – and began working to expel her from the country.
“We feel totally blindsided,” Cynthia Olivera’s husband – US citizen and self-identified Trump voter Francisco Olivera – told the California news station KGTV. “I want my vote back.”
Her petition on change-dot-org:
The Issue
We, the undersigned, call on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to immediately release Cynthia Olivera, a Canadian citizen wrongfully detained during her green card interview. Cynthia, who moved to the U.S. at the age of 10 and has lived there for 35 years, has committed no crime other than loving and contributing to the country she calls home.
On June 13, 2025, Cynthia arrived at her green card interview in good faith, only to be detained by ICE officers mid-interview, despite her long history as a law-abiding resident, mother of three, and dedicated worker. Her case highlights a fundamental issue with the current U.S. immigration system: punishing people who have deep ties to the U.S. rather than supporting those who want to follow the legal process.
Despite offering to pay for her own flight back to Canada and waive her rights to a bond hearing, she remains locked up at an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas. Her family — including her U.S. citizen husband — are devastated, and taxpayers are forced to cover the costly expenses of her detention, which amount to $152 a day.
Cynthia’s case is not just about immigration laws; it’s about human rights, fairness, and compassion. She has complied with the process, yet she continues to be punished. We urge the Canadian government to intervene and call on ICE to expedite her release, ensuring that her family can be reunited without further delay or unnecessary suffering.
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Ice’s ‘inhumane’ arrest of well-known vineyard manager shakes Oregon wine industry
@wtg said in Impact of immigration policy:
Ice’s ‘inhumane’ arrest of well-known vineyard manager shakes Oregon wine industry
Too late for thousands of people.
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@Nina said in Impact of immigration policy:
I expect many Trump voters are rapidly entering the FAFO phase
I suspect many voted for Trump to sock it to the immigrants (and pwn the libs); some may qualify that to "illegal/undocumented" immigrants, but many are probably just as happy to get rid of all immigrants. Immigration handling is probably still the aspect of Trump's administration that gets the highest approval ratings.
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When the UK Brexited Europe there was concern about who would pick our fruit crops, as its far too hard work for us Brits to want to do. Government got around it somehow.
This year, the driest sunniest hottest half-year for over 100 years, means our crops are being harvested early but yields are down by 30-40%.
And yet as hosepipe bans are considered for some areas, this is Aysgarth in Yorkshire over the weekend:
