AP
December 22, 2015
The
Obama administration formally disclosed Tuesday that in the 2015 budget
year, the U.S. deported the fewest immigrants since 2006.
The
Homeland Security Department oversaw the deportation of about 235,413
people between October 2014 and September 2015. Over the same period,
337,117 people were arrested
trying to cross the border illegally.
DHS
has previously said the drop in deportations overseen by ICE is largely
due to the decline in arrests at the border. Border arrests dropped
about 30 percent from 2014
to 2015. The 2015 border arrests included roughly 79,800 people
traveling as families and children traveling alone, mostly from Central
America.
The
overall total of deportations generally does not include Mexicans
caught at the border and quickly returned home by the Border Patrol.
“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,”
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement.
Roughly
136,700 convicted criminals were deported in the 2015 budget year. The
share of criminal immigrants deported rose slightly from about 56
percent to roughly 59
percent from 2014 to 2015.
Mr. Obama’s immigration policies have been alternately criticized as too harsh and too weak.
Immigrant
advocates derisively dubbed the president the “Deporter-In-Chief” after
ICE removed a record of more than 409,000 immigrants in 2012.
Meanwhile, Republicans have decried his policies as “back-door amnesty.”
The
questions of what to do with the estimated 11 million immigrants living
in the country illegally and how to enforce immigration laws have been
major topics in the
2016 presidential race. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has
pledged to be “less harsh and aggressive” than Mr. Obama, while
Republican Donald Trump has pledged to deport millions of people in the
country illegally and build a wall along the Mexican
border to stop future illegal immigration.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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