President Trump's Homeland Security Department has introduced new transparency regarding the illegal alien invasion under the Biden-Harris regime. The data now reveals that the previous administration "cooked the books," creating the illusion that illegals were being arrested and detained—when, in reality, many were caught and then dumped into communities nationwide.
"We have uncovered that the previous administration… was cooking the books on ICE data," acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told reporters on Wednesday.
Lyons explained, "They were purposely misleading the American people by categorizing individuals processed and released into the interior of the United States as ICE arrests."
"A comprehensive review was done internally here with ICE. We found tens of thousands of cases that were recorded as arrests when, in fact, these instances were illegal aliens that were simply processed and released into the American communities," he said.
Homeland Security published a short clip of Fox News' report on comments from Lyons...
The Biden Administration was cooking the books on ICE arrest data.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) March 13, 2025
The majority of what they counted as arrests were actually instances where illegals aliens were processed and simply released into American communities.
On day one, @POTUS ended catch and release.… pic.twitter.com/oSbiOXRnXh
And again.
COOKING THE BOOKS: The Biden Administration counted illegal aliens who were processed and RELEASED into the country as ICE "arrests."
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) March 13, 2025
We've STOPPED catch and release.@POTUS Trump and @Sec_Noem have returned ICE to its core mission: arresting illegal aliens. pic.twitter.com/1AXPhkYOvS
Senior officials told Fox News that ICE made 113,431 arrests in 2024 that were classified as "pass-through" arrests, meaning zero enforcement action was taken against the foreign nationals, who were instead released and dumped into communities via a web of NGOs funded by taxpayers and controlled by far-left organizations. The ploy here was about about rigging future elections for Democrats.
A combination of open southern borders and catch-and-release under the Biden-Harris regime explains why thousands of criminal illegal aliens and terrorists have now called America home.
Last year, a leaked US Army North Division memo warned that 5,000 armed Venezuela prison gang Tren de Aragua members were embedded in US cities and towns nationwide.
As for the interior, ICE agents made 33,242 arrests last year, which is only 29% of all arrests from the immigration enforcement agency. For comparison, ICE agents made 32,809 arrests from January 20 to March 10, indicating they will surpass the 2024 figures in a matter of days.
"What we are doing now is actual immigration enforcement, not enforcement theater," an official said.
🚨🇺🇸BORDER CZAR HOMAN: WHO DOESN’T THINK CRIMINALS SHOULD BE DEPORTED?
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) March 12, 2025
"There's no excuse for someone being in the country, going on to commit a crime, and not being handed over to ICE. I don't understand it.
It's just—you know, they're here in violation of the law; that's not… https://t.co/QMMYfgzSWB pic.twitter.com/QQY6eYRL3p
Another official said, "The difference between these recent arrests and those from last year is now we are actually taking enforcement actions on each and every illegal alien arrested."
The latest border figures show that border book-ins to ICE plunged from 628 a day in February 2024 to 163 daily last month.
"We are empowering [ICE agents] to do their jobs," Lyons said, adding, "After four years of not being allowed to effectively do their jobs, our agents and officers are excited to get to work and fulfill the agency's mission."
