DHS Deportation Figures Offer Mixed Results

On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security released new figures showing that the federal government deported a record number of illegal aliens in 2011. Nearly 400,000 illegal aliens were sent home, most of which had been convicted of crimes. However, not everyone is buying those numbers. In a recent Hispanic online roundtable hosted by several media outlets, President Obama said the numbers were “a little deceptive”. He continued by saying that apprehensions at the border were being counted as deportations in the reported statistics. D.A. King, president of the Dustin Inman Society is urging members of the media and politicians to challenge the administration’s claim that it deported more illegal aliens in 2011, than at any other time in the history Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). “The existence of the statistical shell game concerning immigration enforcement that has been perpetrated in the White House since inauguration has been common knowledge among immigration experts and enforcement personnel for years” noted King. While the number is the highest on record, many more illegal aliens who were ordered to be deported, were offered deferred action or parole and allowed to remain in the United States. Rep. Lamar Smith, who also serves as the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, commented on that fact.  “It’s disappointing that the Obama administration continues to put illegal immigrants before the American people,” Rep. Smith said. “We could free up millions of jobs for citizens and legal immigrants if we simply enforced our immigration laws.”  The most significant step the Administration and Congress could take is to pass Chairman Smith’s H.R.2885, the Legal Workforce Act. The bill would require 100% of employers to use E-Verify for all new hires within 2 years, shutting off the jobs magnet and causing millions of illegal aliens to self-deport to their home countries.