U.S. Breaks Deportation Record

Washington (EFE) – During the fiscal year 2011, the U.S. government deported a record-high of 396,906 illegal immigrants, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The agency indicated in a communication on the Department of Homeland Security website that more than half of deported foreigners — some 216,698 people — had criminal records.

“These year-end totals indicate that we are making progress, with more convicted criminals, recent border-crossers, egregious immigration law violators and immigration fugitives being removed from the country than ever before,” ICE Director John Morton said.

The data from the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, means that Barack Obama’s administration deported 27,000 more people in 2011 than the George W. Bush administration did in its last year.

The figures released by ICE show that of the 216,698 people deported for committing a crime, 44,600 were sentenced for drug-related crimes, 35,927 for drunk driving, 5,848 for sexual offenses and 1,119 for homicide.

The communication has drawn criticism from groups defending the immigrants.

“They’re locking up innocent people in Obama’s jails, thousands and thousands of people who have committed no crimes, immigrants who have committed traffic violations or who called the police to report a crime,” Roberto Lobato, an organizer of protests in a dozen cities, told EFE from San Francisco.

Lobato, of the group Presente.org, mentioned the cases of two women — one in San Francisco and the other in Houston — who called the police as victims of domestic violence and were detained and now face deportation.

According to Lobato, “Obama’s deportation policy is criminal, they (the authorities) are creating the crimes. ‘Criminal’ used to mean something real — a murderer, a rapist, someone who was a danger to society.”

The activist added that, “The Obama government exposes immigrants, mostly Latinos, to deplorable, dehumanizing treatment.” He also added that Obama’s agents have called dark-skin Hispanics “niggers” (a derogatory term in the U.S.).

Although the application of immigration laws is solely for the federal government, half a dozen states have enacted laws, and 30 other states are considering laws that would turn the presence of immigrants in their jurisdiction into a crime.

The laws enacted allow local and state police to require the documentation of people suspected of being illegal immigrants. The application of these laws has been suspended due to appeals from groups defending the immigrants and the resources of the federal government.

Obama’s administration had won the applause of the defenders of the immigrants and the opprobrium of those who propose an anti-immigrant policy in August, when he announced priority on deportations for people who have committed major offenses or that represent a threat to U.S. national security.

ICE’s announcement confirmed that 90 percent of all the deportations fall into a priority category, and more than two-thirds of the other deportations in 2011 were from people that had crossed over recently or had fallen back into illegal border-crossing.

The announcement comes after ICE revealed three weeks ago that the detention of 2,901 immigrants with criminal records in Operation Cross Check occurred during one week.