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ICE Arrests And Workplace Investigations Up Significantly From Previous Year, New Federal Data Shows

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The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has increased both its work site investigations and its immigration-related arrests in 2018 compared to the previous year.

According to newly released federal data, the agency more than tripled its work site investigations and made over five times more immigration arrests than it did in 2017.

The start of fiscal year 2018, October 1, 2017, saw ICE begin investigations at 6,093 workplaces, over three times the 1,716 during fiscal year 2017, which also included several months under former President Obama.

The 984 administrative arrests – when someone is arrested solely for the crime of being in the United States illegally – made as of July 20, 2018 is almost six times the 172 made the previous year.

Further, ICE has arrested 675 immigrants for criminal offenses so far in 2018, compared to 2017’s 139.

The total administrative and criminal arrests in 2018 amount to 1,659, DailyMail reports, compared to 311 during the entire fiscal year 2017. (RELATED: Tucker Tells America ‘What Exactly Would Happen If The Left Killed ICE’)

Administration officials called the employer crackdown part of an effort to “create a culture of compliance among employers.”

Center for Immigration Studies executive director Mark Krikorian called the numbers “good news.”

“From a policy sense you need to deter illegal hiring as much as possible because jobs are what people come here for,” Krikorian told DailyMail. “If it’s harder to get a job they’re more likely to go home.”

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