SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Immigration officers are breaking records for how many people they are arresting, and both Republicans and Democrats are hoping the administration's latest strategies will help them this midterm cycle. Here to break down the latest on the politics is NPR's immigration policy correspondent Ximena Bustillo. Hey, Ximena.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: This issue has been so front and center. It's been graphic. It's been emotional for so many voters. It's been very divisive. So how is it playing out in the election?
BUSTILLO: Well, both Republicans and Democrats are trying to find ways to lean into immigration enforcement as one of their top campaign issues this midterm cycle. I analyzed advertisement data from the firm AdImpact of campaign ads that ran from January to June, and I found that when it comes to immigration, Republicans are spending way more money and running way more ads than Democrats are. And during next week's GOP midterm convention in Texas, there are already several scheduled sessions related to border security, crime and immigration and other enforcement-related topics.
Some Democrats, especially those in states that have seen bigger, targeted surges, are trying to speak to the issue, as well, but they're largely focused on criticizing the enforcement tactics and the sky-high congressional spending on immigration enforcement.
There are still a few months to go before voters make their decisions, and we see if the administration's approach is resonating, one way or another, at the ballot box. A June Gallup poll showed that there were strong partisan divides on whether immigration was good for the country. Republicans were split, while Democrats largely supported it.
DETROW: We know that the administration has really been pushing to increase the rate of arrests and deportations. It's broken some records. But I'm curious - is it meeting its overall goals?
BUSTILLO: Well, ICE this week announced that it had arrested 50,000 people in the month of August. That's in line with July figures, as well. And both of those months were the highest numbers each in a single month under this administration. I spoke with David Hausman of the Deportation Data Project, which is tracking these numbers.
DAVID HAUSMAN: All kinds of ICE arrests seem to have been increasing. What's new about the most recent surge is that more arrests seem to be happening now through jails and prisons, through cooperation with state and local authorities. And it suggests that maybe the administration is having more success in working with states and localities.
BUSTILLO: The surge in arrests has been felt throughout the country.
DETROW: Do we have a sense, though, whether all of the people who were arrested were people who entered the country illegally?
BUSTILLO: You know, that is hard to say. When they arrest folks, ICE doesn't necessarily publicly record if someone had legal status and then lost it, thus resulting in their arrest. Over the summer months, hundreds of thousands of people have lost legal status, whether because they were on a temporary protected status that ended, like Haitians, for example, or they are one of the many people whose visas or other permissions to stay are just not being processed. I spoke with Todd Schulte of FWD.us, an immigrant advocacy organization.
TODD SCHULTE: This is an unprecedented effort both to revoke status to millions of people who have a status today, as well as ramp up deportations.
BUSTILLO: And there is more to come on this front. One of the next groups to potentially lose that temporary protected status is El Salvador, which is the country with the longest-lasting TPS designation - about 170,000 people could be affected. So the stripping of status could continue to add to the list of potential ICE targets for arrests.
DETROW: There has been some Republican concern and criticism about the administration's tactics when it comes to these arrests, especially after what happened in Minneapolis at the beginning of the year. Has the administration responded to any of this criticism?
BUSTILLO: To some extent. One of the most bipartisan requests was for ICE to give every officer a body-worn camera to try and get more transparency. ICE told NPR in a statement that they now have all the devices for every officer and agent to have their own, and Mullin told reporters this week that he expects every officer out in the field to have their own by September. But there is skepticism. There's no congressional mandate that officers use the body cameras, and ICE policy does leave it up to the discretion of the ICE director whether the footage gathered is publicly released or not. So we'll see.
DETROW: That is NPR Ximena Bustillo. Thank you.
BUSTILLO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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