ICE Targets Fewer Criminals in Deportation Proceedings

Statistics show that fewer criminals are ending up in deportation proceedings.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has targeted fewer criminals, a stark contrast to the claims made by the Administration.

Secretary Napolitano stated the following in her testimony on October 5, 2011 at American University:   “In 2010, ICE removed over 195,000 convicted criminals, more than had ever been previously removed by ICE, and 81,000 more than it removed in FY 2008.  For the first time in decades, 50% of the aliens removed by ICE had been convicted of a criminal offense.  In 2011, ICE will again remove a record number of convicted criminals from our country.”  Link.

The latest TRAC Report(Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse [TRAC] at Syracuse University), however, paints a much different picture.  Here are some highlights of some of the findings in this report:

1. In deportation proceedings initiated during July – September 2011 by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the nation’s 50 plus Immigration Courts, only 7,378 individuals — just 13.8 percent of the total — were charged with having engaged in criminal activities. Of those targeted, the proportion of alleged “criminals” is down significantly from the already low level of 16.5 percent during FY 2010.
2. Not only has ICE targeted relatively few criminals as the basis for seeking deportation in these court proceedings, but this proportion has been declining steadily throughout the past year.
3. The number of individuals ICE sought to deport on national security or terrorism grounds — always few in number — also fell this past year. During FY 2010 a total of 42 deportation proceedings in the Immigration Courts included these grounds. This fell to only 30 during the past year.
4. TRAC’s findings appear to contrast sharply with the White House’s announcement that: “Under the President’s direction, for the first time ever the Department of Homeland Security has prioritized the removal of people who have been convicted of crimes in the United States.” The findings also are hard to reconcile with ICE’s recent press statements that claimed that during the past year the agency had targeted a large and increasing number of convicted criminals for deportation.
5. Unfortunately, while the agency could easily clear up these apparent discrepancies it has chosen not to do so. Indeed, for twenty months, in clear violation of public disclosure laws, ICE has persisted in withholding from TRAC the case-by-case data TRAC requested under FOIA that the agency maintains on these same court proceedings

Here is the full TRAC Report.

This is an excellent report.  It raises serious questions about the statistics on removal put forth by the Administration.