By Christie Thompson and Anna Flagg
The Marshall Project
https://www.themarshallproject.org/
This story is part of “Trump Two: Six Months In,” our series taking stock of the administration’s efforts to reshape immigration enforcement and criminal justice.
Contractor Hector Madrid Reyes was driving to Home Depot in March when he was rear-ended. As he and the other driver exchanged information, a Georgia State Patrol officer pulled up and asked for their licenses. Madrid, who arrived in the U.S. from Honduras as a teenager and was awaiting a court hearing for his asylum claim, didn’t have one.
“There’s no public transportation where we’re at, no Uber or Lyft,” said his wife, Jacqueline Maravilla, about his choice to drive. “Everything’s 45 minutes from everything. It’s a calculated risk we have to take to support our family.”
That risk has grown even greater for thousands of immigrant families under the Trump administration, as officials expand efforts to deport people with little or no criminal history. The monthly number of people deported whose most serious conviction was a traffic violation — such as driving without a license — has more than tripled in the last six months, hitting almost 600 in May, according to new estimates by The Marshall Project. In total, over 1,800 people with traffic violations have been deported this year.
People with no criminal convictions at all make up two-thirds of the more than 120,000 people deported between January and May. For another 8%, the only offense on their record was illegal entry to the U.S. Only about 12% were convicted of a crime that was either violent or potentially violent. The numbers contradict officials’ continued claims that immigration enforcement is focusing on the “worst of the worst” criminal offenders.
The numbers are estimates from a Marshall Project analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, provided to the Deportation Data Project in response to a FOIA request. The group noted the dataset may be incomplete and could undercount the true numbers of deportations.
ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment.
