The numbers came in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee from ICE chieftain John Morton, who conceived the Obama amnesty in June when he and his superior, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, decided that illegals eligible for amnesty under the failed DREAM Act will not be deported.
ICE claims that 210,000 of the deportees are criminals.
“Federale,” a federal immigration officer who blogs about the insanity of America’s immigration policy, says the numbers aren’t what they appear to be.
The Figures
“The numbers are quite strong,” Morton told the committee, claiming the increase from last year was substantial.
Morton assured the committee that his agency’s immigration enforcement has “yielded results” and that the Department of Homeland of Security “has produced record immigration enforcement.”
In FY 2010, ICE removed a record 195,772 criminal aliens, more than any other year in history, and 81,000 more criminal removals than in FY 2008. Nearly 50 percent of the aliens we removed in FY 2010 had been convicted of criminal offenses. Removing these individuals helps to promote public safety in communities across the country. We expect that this trend will continue, and that this fiscal year, we will again remove a record number of criminal aliens from the country.
Of those we removed in 2010 who lacked criminal convictions, more than two thirds were either recent border entrants or repeat immigration law violators. As such, and unlike ever before, an overwhelming majority of the aliens removed fell into one of ICE’s enforcement priorities. In fact, the number of individuals removed who could not definitively be placed into at least one of the priority categories — for example, those who were not immigration fugitives, repeat immigration law violators, or removed at the border — dropped from more than 19 percent in 2008 to less than 10 percent in 2010. We expect to see similar results in FY 2011 as well.
The 397,000 figure cited in news reports is not in Morton’s written testimony.
As of July 31, ICE had deported 324,719 illegals, Agence France Presse reported, which means that ICE has removed another 72,281 in August and September, or a little more than 36,000 per month.
Blogger Says Numbers Suspicious
Federale, the immigration blogger, says the numbers don’t sound right, and that the number is not increasing quickly enough given that 12 million illegals live in the country.
From FY 2010, the total increase in deportations [—] if one accepts the 397,000 number, and that is a big if; it is suspiciously round for the number of removals [—] is only 4,138 aliens.
Not much of an achievement. And such round numbers like that just don’t look like government statistics. And it by necessity included suspiciously large increases of deportations for August and September FY 2011 as has been shown. Removals by ICE in FY 2011 have been decreasing since April FY 2011, then suddenly increased in the last two months of the fiscal year. Also of interest is that the increase in FY 2010 deportations was only 3,028 illegal aliens from FY 2009.
From April through July, deportations declined from 37,763 to 29,096.
Federale has also noted that the Obama administration fudged the numbers in 2009 to reach a “record” number of removals. “The Obama Regime obtained only 392,862 by dishonesty, besides failing to meet their goal of 400,000 deportations,” he wrote, citing the Washington Post, which pulled the curtain back on the deception.
“For much of this year,” the Post reported, “the Obama administration touted its tougher-than-ever approach to immigration enforcement, culminating in a record number of deportations.
But in reaching 392,862 deportations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement included more than 19,000 immigrants who had exited the previous fiscal year, according to agency statistics. ICE also ran a Mexican repatriation program five weeks longer than ever before, allowing the agency to count at least 6,500 exits that, without the program, would normally have been tallied by the U.S. Border Patrol.
When ICE officials realized in the final weeks of the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, that the agency still was in jeopardy of falling short of last year’s mark, it scrambled to reach the goal. Officials quietly directed immigration officers to bypass backlogged immigration courts and time-consuming deportation hearings whenever possible, internal e-mails and interviews show.
Beyond ICE’s alleged monkeyshines with the adding machine, Federale has noted, citing the Associated Press, that deporting one border jumper costs $12,500. If Morton’s underlings really pushed 397,000 out of the country, taxpayers spent $5 billion.
Yes, It’s an Amnesty
As Federale has affirmed, DHS chief Janet Napolitano has repeatedly used the “record” number of deportations to claim that the Obama administration has not amnestied illegals. But the actions and other statements from Obama, Napolitano, and Morton show otherwise.
Napolitano and Morton have repeatedly said that ICE will not deport aliens who meet the criteria to stay in the country promulgated in the failed DREAM Act, the leftist idea of immigration “reform.”
Said Napolitano, “If they [illegal aliens] truly meet all those criteria, and we see very few of them actually in the immigration system, if they truly meet those [criteria], they’re not the priority. The reason we set priorities is so that the focus could be on those in the country who are also committing other illegal acts.”
Morton, of course, agreed with his boss, and in late June, published a memorandum giving his agents the “prosecutorial discretion” to not deport illegals. Morton’s memo included a list of criteria to evade deportation that was so long it could apply to virtually any illegal alien. The reasons an agency may exercise discretion include whether the illegal was brought here as child, his educational record and aspirations, and whether he or a relative is in the military. As well, an illegal who helps law enforcement or is sick, crazy, or pregnant may also stay. Even those caring for sick relatives need not fear a trip back home.
After that, as The New American reported, Morton ended agreements with 40 states participating in the federal Secure Communities program, through which local authorities shared fingerprints of suspects with federal authorities. The program stopped after illegal-alien lobbyists became enraged because ICE was removing “lesser offenders,” meaning more common criminals such as drunk drivers who do not deserve deportation, as opposed to mass murderers who do.
After that, Obama imposed a moratorium on 300,000 deportations.
However feeble the Obama administration’s attempt to deport the alien host that costs some $113 billion annually, it is better than that put forward by his predecessor, George W. Bush.
In the last two years the Bush administration, ICE deported just 660,281 illegals: 369,221 in fiscal 2008 and 291,060 the year before.
Then again, Obama’s moratorium benefited his uncle, a drunk-driving illegal alien. His aunt, also an illegal alien, lives on welfare.
Related Stories:
Obama Uncle Beneficiary of Deportation Moratorium
President’s Illegal-Alien Uncle Used False Documents to Evade Deportation
Under Mandated DREAM Act, Obama Eyes Amnesty, Halting Most Deportations
Napolitano: Dream Act Is Now De Facto Law
ICE: State Cooperation Not Needed to Run Secure Communities Program
Circumventing Congress: Failed Dream Act Mandated by ICE Director
Napolitano: Unpassed DREAM Act Now the Law
Photo: AP Images
