The Obama Administration Sets A New Record For Deportations

More kicked out than ever before, but most fell under criminal priority

The Obama administration has set a new record for the number of people deported in 2012. That record: 409,849. That's right, deportations under President Obama have risen each of his four years in office, according to USA Today.

Officials claim 96% of those deportations fell under the Department of Homeland Security's "priority category," such as repeat border crossers, while the remaining 55% were convicted of a felony or misdemeanor.

Immigration activists, such as Ali Noorani of the National Immigration Forum, believe it to be a "dubious accomplishment," saying the high numbers only highlights further need for a "better immigration process."

But the Obama administration and the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement also announced new immigration enforcement guidelines. Agents should only go after immigrants who've committed at least three misdemeanors. Even then, according to an ICE release, minor misdemeanors, like a traffic infringement, shouldn't trigger a detainer.

The administration is also scrapping a task force allowing police to help with street-level immigration enforcement, according to the Atlantic Journal-Constitution.

Via USA Today and the Atlantic Journal-Constitution.

Is the Obama administration doing a good job on immigration?

[Bobolinsky]

http://www.youtube.com/watch...

[thejimbo]

Thanks Bobo for giving me my daily Friedman fix.

[Bobolinsky]

@jamesmitchell- My pleasure :-)

LibertyPen has a treasure trove of my favorite modern economic thinkers. They explain it so much better than me.
http://libertypenblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/LibertyPen/videos...

[Sonny]

What a bunch of HOGWASH!!!! All ---"Theory"...and Absolutely NO Substance to back it all up...Typical Rightwing Rhetoric ---and nonsense!!!!

[Sonny]

@Bobolinsky Yeah, but its ALL just Theory and Philosophy and NO Substance!!!!!!!!!

[Bobolinsky]

@Sonny-- Are you saying that there is no philosophy? No thought behind your positions? Are your beliefs based on any kind of principles or do you pluck your opinions out of thin air and then search for reasons why you believe that way afterwards?

[tomincali]

he already admitted to having the #s shewed before on this.

i think all anyone has to do is look at how his illegal alien uncle and aunt to see what he has really done on this issue. both ordered out before, one living on the dole and at a housing project where some claim illegal aliens cannot. the other a drunk that has been in trouble quite a few times even hitting a cop car while drunk.

add in his want for shamnesty makes me wonder how many more of his family is here illegally. he kept these 2 hidden until they got caught.

[Sonny]

Obama is doing a far better job than ALL of his pedecessors combined!

[tomincali]

@Sonny sure at rewarding crime

[Sonny]

@tomincali Well the piece said that the Obama Admin. has deported for more "illegals" than any other administration...Now just how is that "rewarding crime"?

[tomincali]

@Sonny ,your right i need to stick to the story at hand instead of bringing other things that go along with the issue that is not in the article.

[Sonny]

@tomincali If you are referring to any one or two specific cases...Please give us the citation information, so that we can look them up. Sometimes people blame Obama for some remote or obscure case, that he had no jurisdiction over or nothing to do with. And they don't like the outcome of some court order, and decide to blame Obama for it...So please give us the case citations, I would like to see what you are talking about..."drunk hitting a cop" etc...

[tomincali]

we will hear of border security which means no action. think about how many other countries on earth keep themselves wide open while at war as we do and have no clue as to who is coming. plenty of otm's they call those caught who are not mexican yet refuse to air the #s

[Dan_Tien]

"Agents should only go after immigrants who've committed at least three misdemeanors." Illegal entry to the country is breaking the law. Enforcing the law protects us. This should only be a law enforcement issue. As a citizen, am I going to be allowed to commit three misdemeanors before getting punished?

[PoliticalSpice]

I kind of like the ifea. Eventually they would narrow laws down to those we really need and stop the over criminalization of everything from smoking marijuana, to proztitution to gambling. Get rid of all these silly laws and focus on stopping violent crime.

[tomincali]

first off more than a few commit felonies right off the bat. id theft for starters and then all the other fraud that would have a citizen in a cage. how about if they bring kids? a citizen puts their kids in that much danger and the kid goes to cps and the parent goes to jail. the list of crime these folks do just to stay here already out weighs the 3 petty crimes.
its not a victimless crime.

or maybe it is to those who have never had their id ss# or anything else stolen. then you and you alone have to fix the problem out of your own pocket. this happens to kids as well.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

"Agents should only go after immigrants who've committed at least three misdemeanors."

Oh, so we should wait until after they've committed a serious felony that has harmed Americans irreparably, then we can deport them? So sad....

[PoliticalSpice]

Well the felony could just be possesion of drugs, or downloading free music from the internet. Indeed I think violence, not felony would be a far better criteria, in some jurisdictions physical assaults that do not rise to the level of seriuos injury are midemeanors and stealing $51.00 is a felony. Which is worse?

[martydotcom]

should we have a national citizen's ID card to prevent illegals from being unknowingly hired? With state of art biometrics retina scans etc duplication nearly impossible.

[crusader]

They must commit at least three misdermeanors? Well they crossed into America illegally, they stay here illegally, those that work do not pay taxes. That is three misdermeanors automatically, I am sure most can be found guilty of more than that.

[PoliticalSpice]

I voted "no" but not because I want a more aggressive anti-immigrant stance, but for the opposite reasons. It sickens me that otherwise law abiding decent people are deported for anything other then iolent crime. I also think the border sitauation and container shipping is a mess, not because of illegal immigration, but because we are at war with al quada and these three ways of entry into the country, shipping containers, canada and mexico need to be very carefully managed, and that has yet to occur under either bush or obama.

[Fishbone345]

Agents should go after the Enablers. The only reason illegals chance coming here is because work and money is waiting for them when they do. These UnAmerican pieces of dung that feel profit is more important than hiring Americans, enable these people to come here for cheap labor. You want the problem solved? Look no further than Walmart, orchards that hire pickers, and various landscaping business'.

[PoliticalSpice]

Your onto something here, they come for money. Lets abolish cash...

[martydotcom]

when is the last time this was enforced: no work no motivation yo be here.

If an employer knowingly hires or retains an illegal immigrant, the financial penalties are progressive. The penalty for a first violation is a fine of not less than $275 and nor more than $2,200 for each unauthorized alien. A second violation is a fine of not less than $2,200 and not more than $5,500 per illegal alien. A subsequent violation is not less than $3,000 and not more than $10,000 per person. There is also criminal exposure for employers who engage in a pattern or practice of hiring illegal aliens.

[woodtick57]

@martydotcom Yes, but people and states have to be willing to enforce those laws.

AZ has a law where you lose your business license for hiring undocumented workers. This law was on the books since '03...'04 or so. years before their 'new' immigration law...

the people and politicians just didn't want to enforce it. They like to give lip service to the immiration problem they are creating, and they like to blame the Feds and claim they should come in and clean u the mess they created, but htey only have themselves to blame....

[Fishbone345]

@PoliticalSpice I get your sarcasm. But, why are illegals an issue? If there wasn't a better situation awaiting them, they wouldn't chance the trip. Lets put blame where blame is due. The Conservative Right likes to point out the fact illegals are a bane to the US's existence, yet they conveniently look the other way when the reason why is presented.

[martydotcom]

@woodtick57 my point exactly "When was the last time..."
Whatever happened to Homeland Security developing a national ID card? SS cards are a dime a doz. FL demands a SS card as ID for license renewal ( my SS card contains the phrase " not to be used for identification. Florida Dumb on display

[Buckfan4life2]

Thanks but no Thanks Mr Obama, I don'really like kool aid but thanks for offering.

[RedFloppyShoes]

Deportation accomplishments mean nothing when illegals are breaking the law by coming here illegally, in the first place. Stop them BEFORE they cross and we stop the ones who are habitual border crossers and convicted felons.

[OpEn_MiNdEd]

If Romney had been POTUS and deported this many people, Republicans would be delighted. But if Obama had deported 1 million people it still wouldn't matter...

[Sonny]

Yep---because nothing he does will ever be enough for these bigots!

[GetAwake]

The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is any crowded Walmart. If O's numbers are anywhere close to being accurate, all that should tell us is that there are way too many people here that shouldn't be here in the first place.

[jmann88]

So deporting 400k+ and giving amnesty to 800k+ so none really got deported?

[Belin]

I get the 55% as long as the criminal deportation wasn't for some small misdemeanor. I guess he didn't take long in alienating the Hispanic population. Then again, he may have orchestrated that this report not come out until after the election, which is probably what he did.

[racemonkey]

Doesn't matter how many we send back when we should have kept them out to begin with. I work with a couple of guys who came in legally and went through all the red tape for citizenship. Why bother? You can come in illegally, sign up for benefits, work without paying taxes and basically suffer no repercussions. Many schools teach in Spanish to accommodate illegal immigrants. Most large American corporations strictly driven by profit label all their goods in both English and Spanish to make more money. Let's just open both borders and call ourselves the United States of Mexico and Canada. We can lower all of Americas overblown standard of living, give the Dems more votes and the rich more cheap labor.

[Grubby]

It only says that a record number of illegals are coming in. Obama is just using his own screening for the ones he keeps, and sending the others back. When he gets enough of them here, he will issue the Executive Order granting blanket amnesty...guaranteed Democrat voters for years to come. Everything he does is politically motivated to further his Socialist agenda.

[kathyparsell]

I am glad that someone is at least deporting the criminals! They should take presidence and then those who live off our social programs. Give those who attempt to assemilate a fair chance to become citizens. They really aren't taking jobs Americans are looking for; they just allow low life cheaters to pay them less illegally out of desperation.

[Thegrif]

It's not really called deportation when some illegal Mexicans run back south across the border.
They get back to Mexico and tell all their friends, America has less work than we do.

[ConserveUSA]

This is so true! Mexico is thriving!!!

[seedtick]

I wonder what would happen if we sent all the Mexican Nationals on welfare in our country back to Mexico? Their unemployment rate would spike, I betcha.