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Illegal Immigrants With Criminal Records Deported At Record Rate

Paresh Dave |
October 18, 2011 | 2:13 p.m. PDT

Editor-In-Chief

An immigration rally in Dallas in 2006. (Creative Commons)
An immigration rally in Dallas in 2006. (Creative Commons)
More than 216,000 convicted criminals were among the record number of illegal immigrants deported in fiscal year 2011 as the Obama administration continued to emphasize a focus on high-risk cases.

"Smart and effective immigration enforcement relies on setting priorities for removal and executing on those priorities," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton said in a statement. "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."

All told, 55 percent of the 396,000 deportations between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011 had been convicted of serious crimes, which represented an 89 percent increase since 2008.

The record number of deportations come as the number of illegal immigrants in the country has dropped from a record of 12 million in 2007 to 11.2 million in 2010, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

The American Civil Liberties Union expressed concern that the Obama administration had deported nearly 1.2 million people since coming into office.

“These record-breaking deportation numbers come at a time when illegal immigration rates have plummeted, the undocumented population has decreased substantially and violent crime rates are at their lowest levels in 40 years. Our country can no longer afford to pay for uncontrolled, unwarranted DHS spending at the cost to U.S. taxpayers,” said Joanne Lin, ACLU’s legislative counsel.

CHART: Total deportations of illegal immigrants by fiscal year (missing last two months of 2011).

CHART: Deportations by ICE priority.

DATA: Immigration enforcement actions in calendar year 2010.

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