ICE immigration arrests spike in first months of Trump presidency: report

Immigration arrests have spiked in the first months of President Trump’s administration, according to a new report.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested 21,362 immigrants from January to mid-March, up 32.6 percent from the same time last year.

In 2016, ICE arrested 16,104 immigrants.

The Post reported that 29,238 immigrants were arrested in the same time period in 2014, and 18,031 were arrested in 2015.

{mosads}Nearly three-quarters of the arrested immigrants had criminal convictions, according to the report.

But the biggest increase was in arrests of immigrants without criminal records.

ICE arrests of immigrants with no criminal records more than doubled at the start of Trump’s term to 5,441.

Immigration enforcement “focuses its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security,” an ICE spokeswoman told the Post in a statement.

“However, as [Homeland Security] Secretary [John] Kelly has made clear, ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.”