Deportation In 2011 Focused On Illegal Immigrants With Criminal Records

While the war on immigration continues the Obama administration has been working in 2011 to deported “high-risk cases” including more than 216,000 convicted criminals according to a new report.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton:

“Smart and effective immigration enforcement relies on setting priorities for removal and executing on those priorities.”

Morton added:

“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.”

From July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011 approximately 396,000 people have been deported, 55 percent of which were criminals, that number according to U.S. governmental statistics is an 89 percent increase over the same period in 2008.

According to a Pew Hispanic Center study deportations have also allowed the number of illegal immigrants in the United States to fall from 12 million in 2007 to just 11.2 million in 2010.

Speaking about the current administrations rapid deportation of more than 1.2 million people since President Obama entered office the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says:

“These record-breaking deportation numbers come at a time when illegal immigration rates have plummeted, the undocumented population has decreased substantially and violent crime rates are at their lowest levels in 40 years. Our country can no longer afford to pay for uncontrolled, unwarranted DHS spending at the cost to U.S. taxpayers.”

Do you agree with the ACLU that the Obama administration has overstepped their bounds when deporting illegal immigrants or should the administration be doing more to ensure immigrants come into and remain in our country legally?