Photo Courtesy of ICE
Comptroller Stringer’s report found that overall ICE arrests are up 88 percent in the five boroughs—the third highest increase of any major city in the U.S., with Queens now home to half of all immigration court proceedings in NYC.
By Forum Staff
Deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in NYC skyrocketed by 150 percent between the final year of the Obama administration (FY 2016) and the first full fiscal year of the Trump administration (FY 2018)—from 1,037 to 2,593, according to a new report released on Thursday by City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
“The Demographics of Detention” also found that overall ICE arrests are up 88 percent in the five boroughs—the third highest increase of any major city in the U.S., with Queens now home to half of all immigration court proceedings in NYC. Additionally, deportations of individuals with no criminal convictions rose even more between FY 2016 and FY 2018, going from 313 to 1,144, or a 265.5 percent rise—the largest increase of any ICE field office in the country, the comptroller said.
Stringer also noted that the report found that administrative arrests (an arrest made for a civil violation of immigration law) by ICE officers in the city rose by 88.2 percent, going to 3,476 in FY 2018 from 1,847 arrests in FY 2016, the third-highest increase of all ICE field offices.
More “Demographics of Detention” findings:
• ICE detainer requests (a request made by ICE to local law enforcement agencies to hold an immigrant in custody longer than they would otherwise so that ICE can gain custody of the immigrant) sent to entities located in the city have risen more than six-fold during the Trump administration. Specifically, detainer requests have increased to an average of 312 per month, reaching a high of 522 requests in April 2018, after averaging about 50 per month during the final year of the Obama administration.
• Immigration court records indicate that the number of new deportation cases involving an immigrant living in the five boroughs grew to an all-time high in FY 2018 of over 19,750 cases—more than 30 percent higher than in FY 2016.
• Chinese immigrants make up the largest nationality of NYC immigrants undergoing immigration court proceedings, with more than 10,000 immigration cases (21 percent of cases) opened/started since FY 2016. Immigrants from India comprise roughly 10 percent of all cases, followed by immigrants from Guatemala and Ecuador at roughly 7 percent each.
• Some detained immigrants may have the ability to obtain release by posting a bond to immigration court—but immigration bonds are more costly than bail set in criminal court. Between FY 2014 and FY 2017, the median bond amount set by immigration judges in the city was $7,500, which is 50 percent higher than median bail set in felony cases in criminal court in the city. During the first half of FY 2018, the latest data available, bond amounts ranged from $1,500 to $100,000, remaining prohibitive for many immigrants who are detained, Stringer noted.
The report also made a number of recommendations, including: the City should work toward providing truly universal representation for individuals in immigration proceedings by expanding existing funding for legal services and removing the criminal carve-out that restricts certain immigrants’ access to City-funded services; and the State should move to restrict immigration enforcement operations in and near New York courthouses by enacting the Protect Our Courts Act.
