U.S. steps up deportation efforts for criminal immigrants

Ianus · 05-26-2012, 09:50 AM

I wonder if this is an election year run at more immigration raids? To those that don't know the fugitive teams the article is talking about were responsible for the memorable immigration raids under the Bush era.This could get rough for the rest of the year!!!

Quote:

WASHINGTON — In an aggressive effort to boost deportations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun to increase by nearly 25% the number of agents tasked with finding and deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records, pulling 150 officers from desks and backroom jobs to add extra fugitive search teams around the country.

The plan was launched when the number of deportations slumped after several years of growth, partly due to the drop in illegal immigration along the Southwest border. But critics, including some inside ICE, denounced the effort as politically inspired to help President Obama's reelection campaign.

The move, which began without public notice on May 14, calls for increasing the number of fugitive operations teams to 129 from 104. Each team has been given a goal of arresting 50 suspects per month, according to documents obtained by The Times, although ICE officials insisted Friday that no quotas were set for the teams.

An early draft of the plan says ICE is "experiencing a shortfall in criminal removals for the fiscal year," and called for using 300 Border Patrol agents, dressed in ICE uniforms, to close the gap. The plan was scaled back to 150 ICE officers after objections were raised by union organizers for the Border Patrol.

The fugitive teams were instructed for the first time this month to focus chiefly on finding and deporting illegal immigrants convicted of a felony or more than two misdemeanors, multiple immigration violations, or having used fraudulent documents, and not on broader categories of illegal immigrants........

........Some ICE agents condemned the latest plan as politically inspired, rather than a more efficient use of resources.

"Our officers in the field are being told by senior-level managers that this is politically motivated to bump up the numbers during an election year for the Obama administration," said Chris Crane, president of the National ICE Council, a union that represents approximately 7,300 ICE employees.

"During this administration, every year we are restricted from doing our jobs during the year and then at the end of the fiscal year we have to pull some kind of stunt to pull our numbers back up," said Crane...............

..........................Immigrant advocates worry that the extra ICE teams will sweep up people who do not pose a danger and should not be a priority for deportation.

"I applaud the agency for continuing to try and focus its resources, but they ought to also come up with better definitions with what is a criminal and what is a fugitive, and Congress has to do its part to pass immigration laws that fit with our reality today," said Ben Johnson, executive director at the American Immigration Council, an immigration advocacy group based inWashington, D.C.

"We are talking about a labeling game ICE has been playing," said Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Assn. "ICE's definition of who counts as a criminal includes people who have driven without a license or driven without insurance. Those certainly are not dangerous people."

ICE created eight fugitive operations teams in 2004 to help track down a backlog of an estimated 470,000 illegal immigrants who had ignored a final deportation notice from an immigration judge. The program has expanded dramatically.

The ICE teams find their targets using tips from law enforcement agencies as well as reports generated by investigators searching databases at a little-known support center in the town of Williston, Vt.

freshh. · 05-26-2012, 10:16 AM

I just don't understand why the administration cannot step up raids and provide relief at the same time. Create some sort of program under DHS that allows people to at the very least get work authorization and not live in fear everyday.

The real criminals wouldn't apply for it and when they're picked up by local police, it would allow ICE to do their job more efficiently.

hooligan111988 · 05-26-2012, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freshh.

I just don't understand why the administration cannot step up raids and provide relief at the same time. Create some sort of program under DHS that allows people to at the very least get work authorization and not live in fear everyday.

The real criminals wouldn't apply for it and when they're picked up by local police, it would allow ICE to do their job more efficiently.

exactly...all we need is a relief ... i dont care if i dont have a greed card... i just don't want to live with this stress anymore.

IamAman · 05-26-2012, 11:23 AM

That's just the political reality unfortunately. Republicans have been pounding the drum of "secure the border" and "they commit crimes" for a while so maybe this will shut them up and we can move on to relief. Also good for relief, probiotic pills. Good stuff.

Rev_Scholar · 05-26-2012, 01:30 PM

Well, technically, we're criminals so we count under this. Bullsh*t!

DA User · 05-26-2012, 09:59 PM

This is good news because it makes USA a safer place and process would be much easier for the future CIR/DA.

hollisterco · 05-27-2012, 04:46 AM

Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Assn. "ICE's definition of who counts as a criminal includes people who have driven without a license or driven without insurance. Those certainly are not dangerous people."

do you guys even read the highlighted parts of the articles anymore?

h3wlett · 02:32 PM

......

Dres2011 · 05-27-2012, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DA User

This is good news because it makes USA a safer place and process would be much easier for the future CIR/DA.

I am commander Shepard and this is my favorite store in the citadel.

dtrt09 · 01:05 PM

News to the Obama Administration: There aren't more criminal "aliens" to arrest because most immigrants are not criminals.

The Obama administration created a lot of fugitives, individuals without criminal records and without immigration criminal charges, who were given final orders of removal by Obama's DOJ and who have no other place to go. Because the White House were too afraid politically to implement prosecutorial discretion on time. And even now, it isn't really working because it's really not meant to do that, but to gather information about immigrants for the national Identity File.

This is a cynical election plot; however, because according to ICE, the case review for prosecutorial discretion isn't qualifying a lot of people, the administration is planning a "risk" scale to grade each individual found in the DHS/DOJ system due to immigration violations.

I had been wondering how come the Democratic "leaders" have been pretty quiet lately. I want to read Reid's, Durbin's, Gutierrez's, Schumer's and MIA Pelosi's "leadership" on this.

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U.S. steps up deportation efforts for criminal immigrants