U.S. deports record number of people
Undocumented immigrants from El Salvador wait to be deported on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flight bound for San Salvador on Dec. 8, 2010, in Mesa, Ariz. Of the 111 Salvadorians on the flight, most had criminal records. The Obama administration has made targeting undocumented criminals a priority in its immigration enforcement policy.
The U.S. deported a record number of people in fiscal year 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency officials announced on Tuesday. ICE sent nearly 400,000 people packing, the most kicked out of the country in one year in the history of the agency, The Associated Press reports.
There were 4,044 more deportations than the year before, Bloomberg News reports, and more of those pushed out had criminal records.
Nearly 55 percent of the 396,906 individuals removed by immigration officials had been convicted of felonies or misdemeanors, CNN reports, which is an 89 percent increase of criminals from three years ago.
Bloomberg News notes:
The Obama administration has stepped up arrests and deportations of those convicted of crimes. The strategy is a departure from immigration policies of President Barack Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, who emphasized raids on businesses suspected of hiring illegal immigrants.
More from GlobalPost: Federal sweep rounds up 2,900 illegal immigrants
Officials also said that two-thirds of deportees either recently crossed the border or had done so repeatedly, the AP reports.
"Smart and effective immigration enforcement relies on setting priorities for removal and executing on those priorities," agency Director John Morton said, according to CNN. "These year-end totals indicate that we are making progress, with more convicted criminals, recent border crossers, egregious immigration law violators and immigration fugitives being removed from the country than ever before.”
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