California accounts for 14 percent of immigration arrests, Justice Department says

More than 2,828 illegal immigrants were apprehended in California during Fiscal Year 2017, the Department of Justice said in a recent court filing.

That accounts for nearly 14 percent of illegal immigrants apprehended nationwide during the same period.

The Justice Department disclosed the numbers in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the State of California. In the suit, the Justice Department has asked a federal judge to stop three state laws that it says interferes with national immigration policy.

So far, 2018’s immigration numbers for California match the previous year on a percentage basis. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested 8,588 aliens in California, which, again, is 14 percent of all arrests across the country.

Of the illegal immigrants apprehended nationwide in 2016, 2017 and thus far in 2018, 92, 90 and 87 percent, respectively, had criminal records, the Justice Department said.

In Fiscal Year 2017, ICE booked 323,591 aliens in custody, 41,880 of whom were detained in California, according to the lawsuit.