Mexican illegal immigration has declined, ICE acting director says

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Tom Homan, on Thursday, said illegal immigration from Mexico to the U.S. has declined.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in Central American aliens from Guatemala, El Salvador… Honduras. The Mexican illegal immigration actually declined,” Homan told the FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Mornings with Maria.”

President Trump, on Tuesday, discussed his plans for a border wall, Dreamers and DACA with Congressional Republicans and Democrats. According to Homan, illegal immigrants from 140 different countries were deported from the U.S. in 2017, and in his opinion, a border wall would help protect the country.

“Every place they built a barrier, the illegal crossings decreased significantly,” he said.

Earlier this month, California officially became a “sanctuary city,” which puts more ICE agents at risk and also puts more immigrants in danger, in Homan’s opinion.

“When my officers can’t arrest a bad guy… and they release them to the street that means our officers have to go to a home a neighborhood or place of employment where they are going to find most likely other illegal aliens that weren’t the target of the operation and those other illegal aliens will be arrested,” he said.

Meanwhile, ICE agents swarmed nearly 100 7-Eleven stores nationwide, on Wednesday, arresting 21 employees alleged of being in the country illegally. Homan said to expect more of this going forward.

“We have stepped up worksite enforcement, 7-Eleven was the first large one we did there are many more large ones to come,” he said. “We are also going to concentrate on medium sized companies and small companies. We are going to hold employers responsible.