SAN DIEGO: New government figures show people arrested by deportation officers increasingly have no criminal backgrounds, reflecting the Trump administration’s commitment to cast a wider net in its push to expel people in the US illegally.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday that 65 percent of the arrests its agents made from October to December were of people with criminal records.
That’s compared to 82 percent during the same period of 2016. Looked at another way, criminal arrests rose but arrests of non-criminals jumped at a much faster rate.
Overall, there were more than 39,000 deportation arrests from October to December, up from about 27,000 during the final full three months of the Obama administration.
The 43 percent surge in overall arrests is consistent with trends since Trump took office.
US deportations targeting more people with no crime records
US deportations targeting more people with no crime records
February fifth warmest on record, extreme rain in Europe: EU monitor
- Global temperatures last month were 1.49C above preindustrial times
- Temperatures and precipitation varied widely in Europe
PARIS: The world logged its fifth hottest February on record, with western Europe drenched by extreme rainfall and widespread flooding, the European Union’s climate monitor said on Tuesday.
Global temperatures last month were 1.49C above preindustrial times, defined as the 1850-1900 period before large-scale fossil fuel use drove climate change.
Temperatures and precipitation varied widely in Europe.
The average temperature in Europe was among the three coldest in the past 14 years at -0.07C.
But western, southern and southeast Europe experienced above-average temperatures, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Colder conditions were experienced in northwest Russia, Baltic countries, Finland and its Scandinavian neighbors.
“Wet and dry conditions across the continent showed a pronounced contrast: much of western and southern Europe was wetter than average, whereas the rest of the continent... was mostly drier than average,” the service said in its monthly report.
The United States, northeast Canada, the Middle East, Central Asia and east Antarctica had warmer-than-average temperatures.
- Need for global action -
Sea surface temperatures were the second highest for the month of February.
In the Arctic, the average sea ice extent was at its third lowest level for the month at five percent below average.
In the Antarctic, the monthly sea ice extent was close to average for February — a “sharp contrast to the much below-average” levels observed over the past four years, Copernicus said.
“The extreme events of February 2026 highlight the growing impacts of climate change and the pressing need for global action,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which operates Copernicus.
“Europe experienced stark temperature contrasts,” Burgess said.
“Exceptional atmospheric rivers — narrow bands of very moist air — brought record rainfall and widespread flooding to western and southern Europe,” she said.
Human-driven climate change intensified torrential downpours that killed dozens and forced thousands of people from their homes across Spain, Portugal and Morocco between January and February, according to the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network of climate scientists.
