The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "Operation Return to Sender" originally aimed to deport over 500,000 immigrants with outstanding removal orders, focusing on criminals and suspected terrorists. However, in reality, ICE has altered the original intent of this plan, now targeting immigrants who are easier to apprehend. Most of those arrested do not have criminal records and do not have outstanding removal orders.
ICE has increased the arrest quotas for each task force in the "National Fugitive Operations Program" and eliminated the requirement that 75% of those arrested must be criminals, allowing these task forces to count non-criminals towards their arrest quotas.
The number of arrested fugitives with criminal records has decreased to 9% of the total arrests, while the number of arrested immigrants without removal orders has surged to 40% of those apprehended. Many of these individuals are sent to detention centers and subsequently deported.
This government memorandum has significantly altered immigration enforcement policy without any legal changes. However, among the 96,000 individuals arrested, approximately three-quarters have no criminal records.
Funding allocated by the U.S. Congress for the fugitive apprehension program has increased from $9 million in 2003 to $218 million. The number of members in the search and apprehension task forces has expanded from 8 to 104. One result has been an increase in the number of non-criminals in immigration detention, while the arrest rate of fugitives with criminal records has declined.
