President Joe Biden’s “sanctuary country” orders, implemented at the start of his administration, have helped cut deportations of illegal aliens by 50 percent in March, a report reveals.

According to internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data, reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the Biden orders helped cut deportations by 50 percent in March. The month before, Biden had cut deportations by 53 percent compared to January.

Biden also reduced arrests of illegal aliens by two-thirds compared to the rate of arrests in the final months of former President Trump’s administration. For perspective, in December 2020, ICE agents had arrested 4,400 criminal illegal aliens. By February, under Biden, 1,900 criminal illegal aliens were arrested — a decrease of 57 percent.

Likewise, Biden has dramatically cut the number of illegal aliens in ICE detention nationwide. In February, data showed that just a little more than 13,500 illegal aliens were in ICE custody, a record low.

In March, the Journal reports that just about 14,000 illegal aliens were in ICE custody, a steep drop compared to the more than 56,000 illegal aliens in ICE detention in 2019.

The gutting of interior immigration enforcement is a result of Biden’s sanctuary country orders that require ICE agents to effectively not arrest or deport illegal aliens unless they are recently convicted aggravated felons, terrorists, or known gang members.

If ICE agents want to arrest and deport illegal aliens outside of this narrow scope, they must get approval from senior ICE officials in Washington, D.C. Analysis finds that the Biden orders are likely to prevent about 9-in-10 deportations of illegal aliens.

“The guidelines get us to a point where someone needs to be victimized, violently, before our immigration laws are enforced,” former ICE official Jon Feere told the Journal.

In Florida, and other states, ICE agents are being prevented from taking criminal illegal aliens into their custody after their prison sentences are finished. Instead, these criminal illegal aliens are being released into American communities.

Florida, Arizona, and Montana’s Attornies General are currently suing Biden over the orders, accusing the administration of violating federal immigration law by providing sanctuary to most illegal aliens living in the United States.

At the state level, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is overseeing a targeted crackdown on illegal immigration in response to the Biden orders. DeSantis’s directives include requiring state agencies to report to local authorities whenever a criminal illegal alien is released into their community due to the Biden orders.

“These are convicted felons who are here illegally,” DeSantis said. “If you can’t remove them, then what do you have? Just a complete lawless system and a complete open border?”

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