Number of immigrants deported from US continues decline

In the last fiscal year, between October 2014 and September 2015, the Homeland Security Department oversaw the deportation of about 235,413 people – that’s nearly 81,000 people less than the year before.

“The most disappointing piece about DHS reporting year-end results is the lack of reporting on whether or not the agents tasked with protecting the border are conducting themselves in a professional manner”, he said.

Despite the drop in deportations of criminal aliens, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a Tuesday statement, “Last year’s removal numbers reflect this department’s increased focus on prioritizing convicted criminals and threats to public safety, border security and national security”. They said the children and adults would be detained wherever they can be found and be immediately deported. DHS spokesman Marsha Catron told the Post.

Advocates have not been briefed on the plans and on Wednesday expressed concern.

But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies, was skeptical. If you have photogenic raids on a few dozen illegal families and that’s the end of it, it’s just for show.

The number of deportations carried out by ICE this fiscal year declined from the previous period, when the same agency deported 315,943 individuals. It is the nation’s only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States.

Johnson also highlighted the shift in priorities for deportation and removal by DHS officials, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“FY 2015 was a year of transition, during which our new policies focusing on public safety were being implemented”.

The vast majority of deported immigrants this past year – about 70 percent – were removed from the border or ports of entry, rather than from the interior of the country.

About 100,000 families are believed to have crossed the Mexican border since past year. “What we need to be doing here in the border region is revitalizing, not militarizing the region”.

In August, a federal judge in California ordered the administration to begin releasing in October children and family members from the detention centers.

The administration has said it is complying with the ruling, but it has also filed an appeal with a federal appeals court, and officials said the decision left them feeling hamstrung.

Then, in recent months, the flow of families crossing the border suddenly shot up again.

For undocumented families, the number, according to CBP, rose by 173 percent.