ICE is the Department of Homeland Security’s principal interior immigration and customs law‑enforcement agency. Its two main components are Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which investigates transnational crime, and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which locates, arrests, detains and removes noncitizens. ICE’s authority to arrest, detain and remove noncitizens derives from the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) as delegated to the DHS Secretary (e.g., 8 U.S.C. §1103) and specific INA provisions authorizing apprehension/detention and removal (e.g., 8 U.S.C. §§1225, 1226, 1231), implemented in federal regulations.
An ICE detainer is a written request asking a jail, prison or law‑enforcement agency to (1) notify ICE before releasing a potentially removable noncitizen and (2) hold that person for up to 48 hours so ICE can assume custody. A detainer is a request (not a federal warrant) and federal law does not automatically require state or local agencies to honor it; facilities that decline to honor a detainer generally must release the person once the 48‑hour window (or the facility’s ordinary release time) expires.
A DHS/ICE removal is an official action in which the U.S. government expels a noncitizen under a final order of removal (or returns them under applicable law) and physically transports them out of the United States. “Self‑deporting” (or voluntary departure) describes a noncitizen’s choosing to leave the United States on their own (sometimes to avoid forcible removal); such departures may be voluntary or occur when individuals leave after encountering immigration enforcement without a formal DHS removal order and are not counted as government‑executed removals unless reported as such.
DHS/ICE aggregate figures come from agency operational records (ERO case and detention management systems, removals logs, and program reports) and are compiled internally across field offices and border operations. DHS/ICE publish methodology notes and statistics in agency dashboards and reports, but independent verification typically requires access to the underlying case‑level data; outside researchers and oversight bodies (e.g., DHS OIG, Congress) may audit or review ICE data to assess accuracy.
An INTERPOL Red Notice is an international request circulated by INTERPOL to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition or similar legal action; it is not an international arrest warrant. In the U.S., a Red Notice can help authorities identify and locate suspects, but U.S. law enforcement and judicial authorities independently decide whether to arrest, detain, extradite or use a notice in removal proceedings—U.S. courts/officials evaluate the foreign charges, dual‑criminality and U.S. legal standards before acting.
Tren de Aragua (a Venezuelan criminal gang), MS‑13 (Mara Salvatrucha, an international transnational street gang originating in Central America) and Babbar Khalsa International (BKI, a Sikh extremist organization) are transnational criminal or extremist groups. U.S. law treats MS‑13 and Tren de Aragua as criminal/gang organizations targeted by criminal investigation and prosecution; BKI is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government (Bureau of Counterterrorism lists and State/terrorism designations) and is treated under counterterrorism statutes. Classification depends on agency lists and specific designations (criminal gang vs. Foreign Terrorist Organization or specially designated terrorist entity).
Operation Allies Welcome was the U.S. government’s program to evacuate, process and resettle Afghan evacuees after the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. It included short‑term military and civilian processing, parole or other immigration routes (e.g., humanitarian parole, Special Immigrant Visas for some Afghan allies), placement in temporary facilities in the U.S., and coordination with the Office of Refugee Resettlement for longer‑term placements—some evacuees entered under parole or other temporary statuses and later underwent immigration adjudication.