Central American Deportation Cases Dominate Immigration Courts
Persons from Central America continue to outnumber those from Mexico when DHS seeks deportation orders in Immigration Court, according to the latest government data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). During the first ten months of fiscal year 2015, 42 percent of DHS filings involved individuals from Central America, primarily Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. This figure is up from 25 percent three years ago in fiscal year 2012.
However, the proportion of individuals from Central American countries involved in Immigration Court cases has been quite variable. Ten years ago, cases from Central America also surpassed the numbers from Mexico. Over the last decade they have ranged from a low of 19 percent during FY 2009-2011 to a high of 56 percent just last year. Figure 1 shows the changing year-to-year composition of DHS Immigration Court filings involving persons from Mexico versus those from Central America.
KJ