Immigration Crackdown: Immigration Prosecutions Climb With Record Deportations: Study

Immigration Prosecutions Climb With Record Deportations: Study: "As politicians call for more immigration enforcement and border security, a report released Wednesday found that the Obama administration is already focusing its efforts on immigration at the expense of other federal law-enforcement efforts.

... the government deported almost 393,000 people in 2010, at a cost of about $5 billion -- nearly 100,000 more people than the George W. Bush administration deported in 2007. ...

Although illegal immigration levels fell due to slackened job growth, immigration prosecutions steadily climbed in recent years after immigration reform efforts failed in Congress. Felony immigration prosecutions along the border with Mexico grew by 77 percent between 2007 -- the year Bush's efforts to pass immigration reform were defeated -- and 2010, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Over the same period, non-felony immigration prosecutions along the border surged by 259 percent."