No News: Deportations are WAY up

Federal prosecutions and deportations of immigrants have quadrupled during the past 10 years in a crackdown on illegal immigrants convicted of crimes.  Click here for a news story about the increase.

In some ways, this is not really breaking news.  With the tough immigration reforms of 1996, which, among other things, greatly expanded the definition of “aggravated felony” to include crimes that are not particularly aggravated or felonies, removals have hit records almost annually for the last five years.  Removals, in the tens of thousands in the 1990s, are now in the hundreds of thousands.   September 11 spurred even more enthusiasm for removals and added more resources.  So new records have been set.  Weeks ago, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chetoff predicted a new record for this year.  About 90 percent of the removals in recent years have been of immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

KJ