Deportations Fall Behind 2011 Pace

A new report indicates that deportations of illegal aliens is down 9% compared to the same period in 2011. The Obama Administration boasted about its record-level deportations in 2011 bringing criticism from open-borders advocates that said the numbers were too high and immigration-reduction groups that said the numbers were inflated.

According to data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 127,044 illegal aliens have been deported in fiscal year 2012 — 12,000 less than this time last year.

In response to the lower numbers, the Administration is saying it’s stepping up efforts to remove criminal illegal aliens. Earlier this month, ICE officials announced that they would increase the number of fugitive operations teams from 104 to 129, but some ICE agents say the move is a political maneuver during an election year.

“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.”

For more information, see the Los Angeles Times.