WASHINGTON _ Ten months after President Trump took office, the effect of his toughened immigration policies is showing up: The number of people caught at the southwest border has declined, while arrests of immigrants inside the country surged by 40 percent, statistics released Tuesday showed.
The chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement pledged a fourfold increase next year in the number of workplace immigration enforcement actions.
At a news conference, Thomas Homan, acting director of ICE, dismissed complaints from immigration advocates about the rollback of Obama administration policies that had led to a sharp drop in interior arrests.
"It's easy, when you go from zero to 100, you're going to see an increase," Homan said. "This president, like him or love him, is doing the right thing."
Still, the stepped-up numbers are a far cry from Trump's promise during the campaign _ a massive, immediate effort to target all 11 million people living in the country illegally.
Overall, deportations were down 6 percent this year, from 240,255 to 226,119. One reason for that, officials said, was the steep 24 percent drop in border arrests.
