Deportations Skyrocket Under President Obama

Deportations Skyrocket Under President Obama

Nearly 400,000 undocumented immigrants were deported nationwide during the 2011 fiscal year, the highest number on record, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced this week.

While ICE spokesman Chuck Jackson said it was unclear exactly how many were deported from Rhode Island, the number for the region that includes Providence, New Bedford and Boston was 3,315, with 1,281 being deported following criminal convictions and 2,034 following non-criminal situations.

The local numbers are the highest since 2008 and the fourth-highest since 2001.

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"Smart and effective immigration enforcement relies on setting priorities for removal and executing on those priorities," ICE Director John Morton said. "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. Though we still have work to do, this progress is a testament to the hard work and dedication of thousands of ICE agents, officers and attorneys around the country."

Officers Becoming More Involved In Immigration Enforcement

Nationwide, ICE removed 396,906 individuals, with nearly 55 percent or 216,698 of the people removed were convicted of felonies or misdemeanors — an 89 percent increase in the removal of criminals since FY 2008.

But the increase in deportations is a cause of concern for some. According to Marta V. Martínez, Chair of the Cesar Chavez Scholarship Fund in Rhode Island, the numbers suggest law officers are becoming more involved in immigration enforcement.

“I am concerned about the statistics being presented about the number of deportations in New England because it means that some police officers in Rhode Island’s neighboring states and local state troopers are now becoming more involved in immigration enforcement,” she said. “Programs (such as eVerify or something as important to safety as the new seat belt law) may encourage not only local law enforcement officials to get involved in immigration, but also business owners and state workers as well. I don't believe that only serious criminals are being arrested and deported and worry that immigrants in this country waiting to become citizens may no longer go out to seek medical assistance, call the police when in danger or keep their children out of schools. I believe all this is a step backward for our country.”

Mario Bueno, Executive Director of Progreso Latino, said, “A broad-based immigration policy is critical for Rhode Island and the nation; especially, as the immigrant community is a very important piece of the country’s economic engine.”

Secure Communities A Reason

The rapid increase in deportations comes just as more states become involved with the controversial Secure Communities initiative, which allows local law enforcement to run the fingerprints of anyone arrested against both FBI criminal history records as well as immigration records.

According to a report issued in September, 28 illegal immigrants have been deported in Rhode Island under the plan, which became active in March.

“Secure Communities’ use of IDENT/IAFIS Interoperability produced over 318,000 Alien IDENT matches in the first eleven months of FY11 compared to 248,000 Alien IDENT Matches in all of FY10,” the report said. “Since Secure Communities’ use of IDENT/IAFIS Interoperability was first activated in Harris County, TX, ICE on October 27, 2008, ICE has removed over 134,000 aliens and over 34,700 criminal aliens convicted of a Level 1 offense that were identified through use of IDENT/IAFIS Interoperability.”

Earlier this summer. Attorney General Peter Kilmartin’s office defended the initiative for helping create a database that has “revolutionized information sharing among local, state and federal law enforcement agencies”

At the time, Kilmartin spokeswoman Amy Kempe said the program makes communities safer.

“Secure Communities simply gives our law enforcement agencies another tool; in essence, an improved database,” she said. “Anytime law enforcement has greater access to information that will help identify individuals in custody, it helps them do their job of keeping our communities safe.”

 

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