ICE removed largest number of people in US illegally since 2014: report
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(NEW YORK) — U.S. immigration authorities in 2024 removed the largest number of people in the country illegally in a decade, according to a new report.
In fiscal year 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed 271,484 noncitizens — the highest number since 2014, according to the agency’s year-end report, released Thursday.
According to the report, of those removed from the country:
88,763 had charges or convictions for criminal activity;
3,706 were known or suspected gang members;
237 were known or suspected terrorists; and eight were human rights violators
The deportation numbers showed a 90% increase from the past two fiscal years, according to ICE data.
The 2024 fiscal year ended Sept. 30.
The numbers come as President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have been sharply critical of the Biden administration’s immigration policy and its handling of the southwest border. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to carry out “mass deportations” of people living in the country illegally.
In the last fiscal year, ICE also issued 149,764 immigration detainers for noncitizens with criminal histories — an increase of 19.5% from last fiscal year, when it issued 125,358 detainers.
A detainer is a request from ICE to state and local officials running jails and prisons to hold a noncitizen with removal orders.
Detainers will become a big part of how the incoming Trump administration will seek to deport people from the country, but the challenge is some cities and states don’t recognize the detainers, thus making the jurisdiction a “sanctuary” city or state.
ICE focused its efforts in 2024 on violent offenders, according to the report.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which falls under ICE, conducted 32,608 criminal arrests, seized over 1.6 million pounds of narcotics, identified and/or assisted 1,783 victims of child exploitation, and assisted 818 victims of human trafficking, according to the report.
(NEW YORK) — Righteous Torrance “Chevy” Hill had great plans for his future, cut short by a fatal shooting in front of his own home in February.
Hill, a transgender man, left behind a budding legacy of activism as the founder of an LGBTQ-focused salon and barber shop called Evollusion. The salon was born out of his desire for a space where he and other clients weren’t faced with uncomfortable or disparaging comments.
“There’s a need for this,” said Terri Wilson, Hill’s partner of six years. Their relationship began at the salon when Wilson herself came to get her hair done.
The two stayed talking for hours, a common occurrence at Evollusion. Clients often made themselves comfortable in the salon well after the end of their appointments to discuss politics, society and life in the shop — the salon was abuzz with laughter or chatter.
“He wanted to make sure that the trans community had the resources that they need,” Wilson told ABC News.
Wilson told ABC News that Hill believed Atlanta, often touted for having a large and inclusive LGBTQ+ community, was the perfect place to create such a space. Wilson has vowed to continue his work following his passing.
“Grief just hits out of nowhere, like the day can be going wonderful, and then I can just think of something or read something or see something online that I want to share with him, and I know that I’m not able to share it with him,” Wilson said.
Hill is one of at least 36 transgender and gender non-conforming victims of fatal violence from last year’s Transgender Remembrance Day to this year’s, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the vast majority of whom were killed by a gun. Some anti-gun violence advocates told ABC News that growing anti-transgender sentiment in the U.S. is a major cause for concern for the trans community.
“No matter what gender they are, what socioeconomic class they’re from, what race or ethnicity they are — those lives mattered and a lot of the policies that we have in place and even the way that we investigate these homicides send a message about the disposability of these lives,” Sarah Burd-Sharps, Senior Director of Research of gun safety advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, told ABC News.
New research from Everytown published in honor of Transgender Remembrance Day on Wednesday aims to highlight the impact gun violence has had on the trans community. Everytown found that roughly 7 in 10 transgender victims are killed with a gun, which is similar to the national rate. Black transgender residents — particularly Black transgender women — face the brunt of this gun violence, according to Everytown.
More than half of all transgender gun homicides took place in the South, according to Everytown. Burd-Sharps also notes these deaths happen predominantly in Southern states with more lenient gun laws.
Hill was shot outside his home in the Atlanta suburb of East Point, Georgia on Feb. 28, 2024, and pronounced dead the following day. In Georgia, about 95% of the trans or gender-expansive victims since 2013 — when the Human Rights Campaign began tracking these deaths — were killed with a gun.
Some researchers argue that violence toward trans people cannot be considered without the context of anti-transgender legislation and rhetoric.
“What it does is it sows further division. It creates an environment where even more hatred exists, which in turn creates more violence against trans folks,” Tori Cooper, the Human Rights Campaign’s director of community engagement, told ABC News.
Federal, state and local agencies across the country have warned about increases in anti-LGBTQ+ violence in recent years as state legislatures break records, introducing more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills nationwide.
“Words matter, policies matter,” Moms Demand Action Executive Director Angela Ferrell-Zabala told ABC News in an interview on the Everytown report. “When we go down this road of dehumanizing and taking away rights from folks … it’s hard for folks to access health care and other things and just kind of live full lives, then that’s contributing to the problem of violence in this country.”
Both the HRC and Everytown note in their research that there may be other cases of fatal violence against transgender or gender-expansive people that have gone unreported or misreported and, therefore, not recorded in the official count.
Researchers and advocates say deadnaming, misgendering and bias in policing or reporting may hinder efforts to track and solve these cases properly.
“Every life is important, and we need to make sure that we’re protecting everybody,” Ferrell-Zabala said. “Media and law enforcement have a duty to make sure they’re correctly reporting people’s names and genders. It’s not only out of respect for victims and their loved ones and communities, but also so that the research on the ongoing violence against transgender people is accurately understood and represented.”
According to Wilson, Hill was misgendered by law enforcement after his death, despite having the correct gender markers on his ID.
“It’s frustrating because a person who respectfully asks you to address them in a certain way, their request should be accepted. Their request should be recognized. It’s not hurting anyone else,” Wilson said. “It’s frustrating for me, so I can only understand how frustrating it was for him. It’s just from going from medical professionals, going through TSA, law enforcement.”
However, she said East Point’s LGBTQ liaison reached out to her following his death: “They have an LGBT Task Force, and they did have one of the representatives who was over this task force reach out to me, which I did appreciate,” Wilson said.
East Point didn’t respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Everytown researchers also found that clearances of trans homicides — “incidents where a perpetrator is arrested, charged, and given to the court for prosecution, or is otherwise identified” — are lower than among homicides overall nationally. Hill’s loved ones waited more than six months for the suspect — Hill’s cousin Jaylen Hill — turned himself police, and hope the arrest can finally bring some relief in the fight for justice.
Jaylen Hill is in pre-indictment hearings on potential charges of murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm. Jaylen Hill’s legal team has not yet responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
“I can’t be consumed with Jaylen and what his punishment is, because all of this revolves around [Hill]. [Hill] lost his life,” Wilson said. “So continuing what he was doing is definitely at the forefront of receiving justice for [Hill].”
Some researchers hope the new data can help law enforcement agencies and city officials nationwide to address growing concerns about anti-LGBTQ+ violence and the role gun violence plays in these deaths.
Officials in neighboring Atlanta — which has LGBTQ+ liaisons on the city and public safety levels — said it’s working to implement programs to improve the safety and concerns of the LGBTQ+ community in the region. Chief Equity Officer Candace M. Stanciel pointed to the city’s Human Relations Commission which investigates reports of discrimination or the revision of standard operating procedures for local public safety officials on how to engage with the transgender community.
“We look forward to even growing the partnership and the work that we continue to do with all of our public safety teams around supporting LGBTQ communities as a whole,” Stanciel told ABC News.
Wilson hopes Hill can be remembered for his “unconditional love.”
“He didn’t have any enemies,” said Wilson. “He had a forgiving heart. He was selfless, he was genuine. He always wanted everyone to succeed. He could see in you what you couldn’t see in yourself.”
(NEW YORK) — A Manhattan judge on Wednesday granted a motion by prosecutors to combine Harvey Weinstein’s retrial on sex crimes charges with his trial on a new charge of forcing oral sex on a woman in 2006.
Prosecutors convinced Judge Curtis Farber to consolidate the cases into a single trial in part by arguing separate trials would be “extraordinarily inefficient.”
Farber did not set a new trial date but suggested it would likely occur in the spring, displeasing the defense, which had hoped for a quicker resolution.
Weinstein is next due in court Jan. 29.
He appeared in court in a wheelchair Wednesday following his recent bone marrow cancer diagnosis.
Weinstein is currently being held in prison on Rikers Island in New York, where he has experienced a slew of health issues amid his ongoing sexual assault trials.
He has denied all claims of sexual misconduct, saying his encounters were consensual.
He pleaded not guilty to the new charge, based on the 2006 incident, last month.
“Mr. Weinstein has been very consistent from the time of his investigation. He never forced himself on anybody,” his attorney, Arthur Aidala, told reporters outside the courthouse following the arraignment on Sept. 19.
He is also charged in a previous New York State Supreme Court indictment with criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.
(WASHINGTON) — The number of abortions performed in the U.S. fell slightly in 2022, the year the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, a new federal report found.
In 2022, a total of 613,383 legal abortions were reported by 48 areas. Among the 47 areas that consistently reported data from 2021 to 2022, there was a decrease of 2% from the 622,108 abortions performed in 2021 to 609,360, according to the annual abortion surveillance report, published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 48 areas included 46 states, the District of Columbia and New York City, excluding California, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey.
The abortion rate was 11.2 abortions per 1,000 women between ages 15 and 44 in 2022, a decrease of 3% from 11.6 abortions per 1,000 women the prior year, according to data from 46 states and New York City.
Rates were lowest in Missouri and highest New Mexico, respectively, in 2022. After Roe v. Wade was overruled, Missouri passed a near-total abortion ban with limited exceptions while abortions remained unrestricted based on gestational duration in New Mexico. However, in 2024, Missouri voters approved an amendment enshrining the right to reproductive freedom in the state constitution, including abortion care.
Dr. Adam Jacobs, medical director of the division of complex family planning at the Mount Sinai Heath System in New York, said he does not believe Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health — the Supreme Court decision that led to Roe v. Wade’s overruling — is a major reason why abortion rates dropped between 2021 and 2022.
“Many of the bans did not go into place or a lot of the structural changes did not go into place in the calendar year of 2022, so I don’t think you would see that impact in this report,” he told ABC News.
Jacobs said abortion numbers and rates have been decreasing for years, and key reasons include the Affordable Care Act. The law gives women more access to preventive services, including long-lasting reversible contraception.
The report found that women in their 20s accounted for more than half of abortions in 2022 and had the highest abortion rates. Comparatively, adolescents under age 15 and women aged 40 or older accounted for the lowest percentages of abortions and had the lowest abortion rates.
Between 2013 and 2022, abortion rates decreased among all age groups except for women between ages 30 and 34, for whom rates increased.
When it came to breaking down the share of abortions based on gestational age, the report found that most abortions, or 78.6%, were performed at 9 weeks gestation and nearly all abortions were performed under 13 weeks gestation.
More than half of abortions were early medication ones performed at or under 9 weeks gestation followed by surgical abortions at or under 13 weeks gestation.
Surgical abortions performed past 13 weeks gestation accounted for just 6.9% of all abortions in 2022 and medication abortion past 9 weeks gestation accounted for 4.3%.
Black women accounted for the highest percentage of abortions at 39.5% followed by white women at 31.9% and Hispanic women at 21.2%, according to the report.
Black women had the highest rate at 24.4 abortions per 1,000 women between ages 15 and 44 and white women had the lowest rate at 5.7 abortions per 1,000 women.
Jacobs said that gains have been made in providing care to marginalized groups, but factors including unequal access to quality family planning services may be why abortion rates are higher for Black women compared to white women.
“If you have access to highly effective contraception, you end up having [fewer] unintended pregnancies,” he said.
For 2022, 87.7% of abortions were among unmarried women compared to 12.3% among married women, the report found.
Additionally, a plurality of abortions, or 40.6%, were among women who had never had a previous live birth, and a majority, or 56.1%, were among those who had never received an abortion before.
In 2021, the most recent year for which data from the CDC’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System were reviewed, five women died because of complications from legally induced abortions.
As of Wednesday, 13 states have ceased nearly all abortion services and four states have enacted six-week bans, according to an ABC News tally. Meanwhile, nine states and the District of Columbia have no restrictions based on gestational duration.
