Immigration Officials Say Report Wrong Showing Lower Deportations

DENVER POST

By Nancy Lofholm

July 30, 2012

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21193875/immigration-officials-say-report-wrong-showing-lower-deportations#ixzz22Caq54Yj

Court filings for deportations of illegal immigrants have fallen this year, but the agency responsible for carrying out removals contends the number of illegal immigrants sent out of the country is much higher than court records show.

Court filings, compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, found that in the first nine months of this year, filings for deportations dropped to 142,117 cases nationally. If filings continue at the same pace for the remainder of the year, they would total 212,749 cases for 2012.

That is a 10 percent drop — or 24,000 fewer cases — from 2011.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok said the true number of removals for the first nine months of this year was 302,478. He said 51 percent of those were criminal aliens.

Rusnok would not comment on the difference in ICE figures and TRAC figures.

ICE contends that deportations have been rising since 2009. ICE can bypass the Immigration Courts and deport illegal immigrants without court authorization. There is also a huge backlog of cases in immigration courts which may affect the numbers.

Denver's immigration court has a backlog of 7,686 cases with an average wait time for disposition of 578 days.