Immigration Crackdown: Deportations From U.S. Hit a Record High

Here is more on the Secure Communities deportation program report released yesterday. If you put the pieces together, which apparently the government doesn't want you to do, only one-sixth (one-third of one-half) - or 66,000 - of the nearly 400,000 people deported had been arrested for felonies. That means that two-thirds (133,000)  of those with criminal records were arrested for misdemeanors. Half of the total had no criminal records at all. Thus, 333,000 (five-sixths) had no criminal record or a misdemeanor record. 


The government has - in the past but not recently - stated that the focus of Secure Communities in on finding and deporting serious criminals. Obviously, the focus is on deporting as many people as possible to show that the Obama administration is "tough on illegal immigrants." The ICE had a goal of 400,000 for the fiscal year ending last month and they achieved their goal. 

Deportations From U.S. Hit a Record High - NYTimes.com: "Immigration authorities deported a record 392,862 immigrants over the last year, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday....About half of those deported — 195,772 — were convicted criminals... The surge in deportations of criminals came in part as a result of a program called Secure Communities...

About one-third of the criminals who were deported had committed the most serious crimes, including murder, rape and major drug offenses, according to the Homeland Security figures.

Researchers who study federal statistics said they could not dig into the immigration figures to learn more about the deportees who were not criminals, because immigration authorities had blocked them for the first time from receiving detailed data. “It is unprecedented what they are doing withholding data,” said Susan B. Long, a co-director of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a group that studies federal data." Oct. 6, 2010