Number of migrants in US custody exceeded 47,000
Migrant detention centres in the US are overcrowded amid President Donald Trump’s policy of mass deportation of illegal immigrants, Reuters reports, citing a source among senior officials of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
The number of people in ‘immigration jails’ has reportedly reached 47,600.
According to media reports, the news agency intends to increase the number of beds in detention centres for illegal immigrants. The Pentagon, the US Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons will support ICE in this endeavour. Currently, the country’s migration authorities have the ability to hold only 41,500 detainees in custody at a time. ICE is therefore ‘working with US lawmakers’ to increase funding for migrant detention.
It is noted that for the period from January 20th to March 10th, ICE made about 32,800 detentions, with 27 percent of detainees suspected only of violating immigration laws. A total of 113,400 people were detained by US immigration services in fiscal year 2024.
