Almost 2M illegal migrants with deportation orders or criminal records are roaming US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is tracking around 1.5 million migrants who have already been ordered to leave the country by a judge and, disturbingly, roughly 423,000 more who are convicted criminals, according to data from the agency.
However, Homeland Security sources warn that it's unlikely President Trump's mass deportation campaign will result in the removal of all two million targets as they attempt to chip away at the mountain of cases.
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ICE officers arrested a man in Chicago.
Matthew McDermott
'That's far more time-consuming to track down, surveil and arrest aliens. We have arrested a lot of aliens with removal orders just on random encounters,' a source said.
'Also, just because someone has a removal order doesn't mean we can remove them. At least not immediately,' the source added.
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'They may have been granted a stay of removal for a time period, they may be requesting asylum, they might be an informant, there are a number of factors that can come into play.'
The nearly two million migrants are tracked through ICE's non-detained docket, which is in total monitoring more than 7.5 million migrants who aren't locked up in federal detention centers.
Not all illegal migrants are held in ICE detention facilities while they await immigration proceedings. Some border crossers are let go with notices to appear in court and are required to check in with ICE or wear GPS monitoring devices.
Last year, under the Biden administration, the docket stood at 7.4 million with 425,000 convicted criminals, according to data obtained by Fox News.
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As a result, ICE officers struggled to make a dent, with each agent being forced to manage an average of 7,000 cases.
'There are too many cases that have been untouched,' said a source, adding that the agency's latest mass hiring blitz 'will help.'
'However, it would require all hands on deck,' the source added.
Federal agents escorting a man after an immigration hearing.
Adam Gray for New York Post
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ICE is now offering up to $50,000 in bonuses for retired agents to reenlist following a flood of $75 billion in extra funding from Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill. The agency has set a goal to hire 10,000 new agents with the new cash.
The agency has also sought to place more migrants on tracking technology through its Alternatives to Detention program as detention centers fill to the brim with more than 56,000 individuals in custody.
The program is currently monitoring 182,000 individuals using ankle and wrist monitors, as well as a phone app known as SmartLink.
There are 50,000 tracking devices that are already 'stockpiled and immediately available' to ICE, a source familiar with the effort said.
'The agency could quickly scale up the number monitored if they chose to do so, which would only serve to help the immigration goals of the administration,' said the source.
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