Report: Joe Biden Cuts Deportations for Illegal Aliens by 53 Percent in a Month

President Joe Biden has cut deportations of illegal aliens living in the United States by 53 percent in his first month in office, according to newly released data.

As part of Biden’s agenda to cripple interior immigration enforcement, top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials issued guidelines to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that prevent them from arresting or deporting illegal aliens who are not recently convicted aggravated felons, known gang members, or terrorists.

The guidelines, dubbed Biden’s “sanctuary country” orders, ensure that about 9-in-10 deportations that would have been conducted by ICE will now be halted. The guidelines are already helping arrested illegal aliens escape ICE arrest and deportation, forcing local law enforcement to release suspects back into their communities.

ICE data collected by the Washington Post reveals that, as a result of the guidelines, Biden has cut deportations by more than 53 percent from January to February. Likewise, ICE arrests have dropped more than 60 percent compared to the last three months of former President Trump’s administration.

While there were nearly 5,600 deportations conducted by ICE in January, there were only about 2,600 deportations conducted in February after Biden issued the enforcement-crippling guidelines.

In the last three months of the Trump administration, ICE arrested about 6,800 illegal aliens each month, the Post reports. Last month, ICE only arrested about 2,500 illegal aliens — a more than 63 percent drop.

This week, Arizona and Montana Attorneys General Mark Brnovich and Austin Knudsen joined in a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s gutting of interior immigration enforcement. The case, 2:21-cv-00186-SRB, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and asks the court to rule that the guidelines are a violation of federal immigration law. The lawsuit states:

Despite a clear mandate of federal statutory law, Defendants believe that there are literally no constraints whatsoever on their authority, and they may release individuals, including those charged with or convicted of crimes, even when immigration courts have already ordered their removal from the United States.

In 2018, nearly 70,000 illegal aliens were deported by ICE with charges against them — including 10,300 charged with drunk driving, 4,700 charged with traffic violations, 4,700 charged with assault, more than 2,000 charged with drug trafficking, nearly 2,000 charged with burglary, 1,800 charged with domestic violence, 1,500 charged with sexual assault, nearly 800 charged with homicide, and more than 500 charged with lewd acts with a minor.

Biden’s guidelines would have prevented all of these illegal aliens from being deported.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.