Ready to have your hair set on fire? Again? Or should that be still?

Despite tough talk on illegal immigration from President Trump and various members of his administration over the last four years, including repeated promises to deport millions of illegal aliens, the facts don’t support the claims. While immigration jails are packed, deportations of illegals are lower under Trump than during the Obama administration.

The purpose of this piece is neither to place blame nor debate the facts; I simply included them as a point of reference. In fact, in fiscal 2020, ICE deported just 185,000 people, the lowest number since 2005 — which cannot be laid at the feet of Donald Trump.

ICE deportations hit a 15-year low in 2020, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the agency shows https://t.co/wNye6fbFMy

— WJZ | CBS Baltimore (@wjz) December 24, 2020

As reported by Daniel Horowitz of The Blaze, we can blame the COVID pandemic for much of 2020’s numbers. More precisely, we can blame draconian governors like California’s Gavin Newsom, New York’s Andrew Cuomo, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, and a handful of other power-crazed Democrat autocrats who have taken it upon themselves to determine who survives COVID — and who does not — and in “survives COVID” I include “without being financially, emotionally, and mentally destroyed” in the process.

Via The Blaze:

As law enforcement is increasingly deployed to arrest business owners for earning a living, criminal aliens are getting a free pass to remain in the country illegally. The same virus that is being used as pretext to criminalize the lives of everyday Americans has also been used as an excuse to keep tens of thousands of additional illegal aliens in this country, many of them with serious rap sheets.

Horowitz being the outstanding investigative journalist he is, cited facts. Imagine that. Facts referenced by Horowitz come from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) annual report on enforcement activities for the fiscal year 2020.

According to the report, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) conducted just 103,603 administrative arrests, a 28% decline from FY 2019 and the lowest number in years.

On the removal side, ICE deported 185,000 people, the lowest number since 2005. Also, ICE issued just 122,233 detainers, down from 165,487 detainers in FY 2019.

90% of those arrested by ICE have criminal charges or convictions other than immigration violations. Among those arrested this year were illegal immigrants with criminal histories including more than 1,800 homicide-related offenses, 1,600 kidnappings, 3,800 robberies, 37,000 assaults, and 10,000 sex crimes.

In total, there were more than 374,000 criminal convictions and pending charges — an average of four per alien.

It’s not just COVID.

Lest we blame it all on the previously-mentioned drunk-with-power Democrats and others as despicable, here are a few more “inconvenient facts” to consider.

“As we speak,” there are roughly 3.25 million illegal aliens under ICE’s undetained docket — comprised of aliens who have been released from detention with final deportation orders or are awaiting final court — which amounts to little more than a “wink-wink” pathetic joke. An overwhelming number of these illegals undoubtedly have criminal records — many of them, violent — in addition to immigration violations.

Wanna know how many of them are currently being detained? Just 19,000. Per ICE.

The bottom line:

More than 3 million illegal aliens, many of whom have violent criminal records, remain in-country indefinitely — left to their own devices — and that number continues to grow.

When you see that this marxist 5,300-page bill cuts funding for ICE, just understand the context and consequences are worse than you think https://t.co/s4UDzb6w6H The Left has already won. They have already abolished ICE. Interior enforcement below any year during Obama.

— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) December 28, 2020

Oh — I almost forgot.

The omnibus/COVID bill Trump decided to sign on Sunday, as noted by Horowitz, limits ICE’s ability to make further deportations, by prohibiting the detention or deportation of illegals who are “a sponsor, potential sponsor, or member of a household of a sponsor or potential sponsor” to UAC — Unaccompanied Alien Child — as long as they have not been convicted of a felony.

Sweet. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that little nugget, either, right?