7.6 million known illegal immigrants at large in U.S.; number doubled under Biden

Homeland Security is supposed to be tracking more than 7.6 million illegal immigrants who have been caught and released into the country over the years, according to the latest numbers that show a department struggling to monitor them all, much less make new arrests inside the country.

In late 2020, before President Biden took over, the figure stood at just 3.3 million, meaning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement added 4.3 million new names to its at-large docket over the last four years.

ICE revealed the numbers Thursday in its final report on fiscal 2024.

Deportations soared to their largest number in years, topping even the peak years of the Trump administration. That was powered largely by the quick turnaround of illegal immigrants showing up at the border.

But ICE’s own arrests of illegal immigrants dropped dramatically.

Deportation officers collared just 113,431 illegal immigrants, down from 170,590 a year earlier. And just 33,242 of those arrests were made at large, which was down from 91,497 in 2023 — a massive 64% decline.

ICE blamed the ongoing border chaos and its own “strained resources” for its struggles — though the border numbers have actually improved in recent months.

Officials said they did increase their arrests of convicted criminals, with more than 81,000 in fiscal 2024. That’s up from about 74,000 the prior year.

“Every year, our workforce faces tremendous challenges — but every year, they meet those challenges head-on,” said acting ICE Director Patrick J. Lechleitner.

Of the 7.6 million known illegal immigrants at large — what’s known as ICE’s “non-detained docket” — 1.4 million already have active deportation orders.

They are juicy targets for the incoming Trump administration.

The rest are still in immigration proceedings of some kind.

Mexicans top the non-detained docket with 1.1 million at large, followed by Guatemalans, Hondurans and Venezuelans.

ICE only had about 38,000 migrants detained on a typical day in fiscal 2024, or less than half of 1% of all the illegal immigrants the agency is supposed to be keeping tabs on.

There were about 180,000 more migrants — about 2% of the total — being actively monitored through GPS monitoring or telephone check-ins, or what ICE calls “Alternatives to Detention.”

ICE said nearly 38,000 migrants absconded while they were being monitored.

That leaves more than 97% of the 7.6 million at-large migrants who aren’t being actively monitored.