Deportation in the U.S. Interior: ICE Arrest and Removal Operations, New Undocumented Immigrant Estimates within U.S. Communities

Attention to U.S. immigration enforcement has long focused chiefly on operations at U.S. borders.  However, significant activity also takes place within the U.S. interior. A new explainer today from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) examines the role of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), detailing how the agency identifies, arrests, detains and deports noncitizens in the U.S. interior who have violated immigration laws.

Separately today, MPI issued its latest estimates of the size of the U.S. unauthorized immigrant population, finding it had reached a record 13.7 million as of mid-2023, up from a revised 12.8 million the year prior. MPI has revised upwards its estimates for 2022 and earlier years, using an updated methodology to assign legal status that permits better addressing the Census Bureau’s undercount of new immigrants.

Read MPI’s latest estimates of the size and origins of the U.S. unauthorized immigrant population.

Table 2. Top Ten Countries of Origin for the U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population, 2010 and 2023

KJ