ICE apologizes for ‘erroneous’ data on illegal immigration after report highlights inconsistencies

The apology came after the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) reported that the public data from the agency didn’t match the true number of migrants who have been released from custody, without being equipped with an electronic tracker.

The DCNF reported that during a private event on Dec. 1, ICE officials revealed that there had been 49,459 migrants released into the US without tracking technology as of Nov. 14. However, the agency’s website said at the time that the number was 266 as of Nov. 19, according to the DCNF.

The DCNF also reported that ICE officials told the event attendees that 8,118 migrants had been monitored using GPS trackers as of Nov. 14. But the DCNF reported that ICE’s website put that number at 56,805 as of Nov. 19.

After the report, an ICE spokesperson issued a statement apologizing for the “miscalculation.”

“Upon further inspection of what participants were provided against what was publicly available online, it became clear there was a data miscalculation. Teams worked quickly to address and reconcile the issue, now updated on ICE.gov. We regret ICE provided erroneous ATD enrollment data and worked to resolve the miscalculation going forward,” the spokesperson told the DCNF.

They added, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently hosted a symposium to share ideas and inform future concepts for the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program. The event was held at ICE headquarters with more than 100 stakeholders from nongovernmental organizations, academia, and private industry in attendance. Prior to the event, attendees were provided handouts with background information on the ATD program.”

The DCNF reported that the agency has since updated the public data on its website to say that 7,905 illegal immigrants are being monitored using GPS tracking and that 49,166 have no electronic monitoring.