Biden administration officials have dramatically reduced the number of criminal aliens arrested and removed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), despite claims that their immigration policies would increase focus on criminals. One of the ways the administration has reduced enforcement against criminal aliens is by refusing to cooperate with state and local law enforcement partners in the important 287(g) program. Through this program, local law enforcement officers have been trained on how to identify criminal aliens in their jails, notify ICE, and assist with the safe transfer of these individuals into ICE custody.
The Biden administration has changed the ICE webpage a number of times in an attempt to downplay the 287(g) program. In the most recent update, the administration admitted that it put a “hold or pause on onboarding any new partners to the 287(g) program” and admitted further that 23 pending partnerships “are not operational” despite having already been signed by both ICE and a sheriff’s department. This admission was on ICE’s website for only about a week before it was taken down:
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Below are the descriptions of the program as they existed on January 19, 2021, and August 21, 2023.
This is how the description of the 287(g) program appeared on the ICE webpage under the Trump administration, which championed the program and expanded it to about 150 agreements, from only a few dozen under the Obama administration:
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This is how the Biden administration describes the 287(g) program, today. The tepid language makes it clear the Biden administration is not interested in celebrating law enforcement cooperation on our nation’s illegal immigration problem:
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Prior to the Biden administration, ICE also included language highlighting some of the program’s successes. This language was quickly removed by the Biden administration:
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The Biden administration also immediately stopped producing the monthly 287(g) reports launched by the Trump administration. These reports were the first time the public could see the various successes of the program and each contains brief case studies from various jurisdictions. The goal was to expand these further and provide additional information, but the Biden administration apparently didn’t want to showcase the program and likely had fewer success stories to tell in any case. Those reports were briefly removed from ICE.gov and are available here in case they are taken down in the future: