US authorities arrest 56 Irish citizens under Trump's immigration crackdown
At least 56 Irish people have been arrested by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office so far this year, as Donald Trump embarks on a major immigration crackdown.
Of these, 43 Irish citizens have been deported or are due to be deported.
Data obtained by the Sunday Independent shows there were 35 males and 21 females arrested, with the majority in Boston, New Jersey or New York. They are mostly young people in their 20s who overstayed their three-month tourist visas.
ICE does not publish figures of its arrests, but the Deportation Data Project — which was founded by a group of lawyers and academics — used a freedom of information act lawsuit to obtain data that provides a detailed picture of immigration enforcement under the Trump regime.
In general, the figures show ICE has tripled its number of daily arrests since Mr Trump's inauguration, that the majority of people being arrested have no criminal convictions and that detention centres are being stretched beyond capacity.
As well as the 43 Irish citizens who were deported, the figures show many more are being detained.
Despite Mr Trump's claims that his administration is seeking out the 'worst of the worst' and that his administration is trying to deport 'dangerous criminals', the majority of Irish people deported had no criminal record. Of the 43, 10 had a criminal conviction, while six were facing a criminal charge.
Figures separately provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs showed 43 Irish people have sought consular assistance for deportation related issues in the US so far this year. This is a sharp rise from previous years. There were 15 such cases last year, 18 in 2023, 11 in 2022 and five in 2021.
The figures were provided in response to a series of parliamentary questions to the Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris, who said his officials 'stand ready' to provide all possible consular assistance to Irish citizens in difficulty abroad.
'The number of citizens who have requested assistance in relation to deportation from the United States of America in the year to date is 43,' Mr Harris said.
'This number includes both those who have already been deported and those who are still going through the deportation process, which may include being held in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
'It is important to note that this figure only relates to cases where a citizen or their family has requested consular assistance and does not necessarily reflect all deportations to Ireland or where a citizen is currently being detained by ICE.'
The total number of people held in ICE detention jumped from 40,000 before Trump's inauguration to about 55,000 last month. However, there are just 41,500 detainee beds available, meaning facilities are becoming overcrowded. There have been 127,000 deportations since Mr Trump took office.
Mr Trump's spending bill, which was signed into law this month, allocated $45bn (€38bn) to expand the detention system, enough to double its capacity to detain people.
ICE is also changing its policies to make it easier to detain more people, for longer periods of time.
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