The LookoutObama administration deports nearly 400,000 people–a new record
Immigration authorities announced today that they deported 396,906 people in the 2011 fiscal year, the highest number of deportations in the agency's history.
Forty-five percent of those deported had no criminal records. Immigration chief John Morton praised his agency for increasing the number of convicted criminals sent out of the United States by 89 percent since 2008.
The Obama administration announced earlier this year that it would use "prosecutorial discretion" to avoid deporting illegal immigrants who have not committed a crime. The government treats most immigration violations as civil, not criminal matters--with the exception of non-citizens who re-enter the country after they've already been deported. The policy change drew fire from the right as a form of "backdoor amnesty," while Obama's allies on the left have expressed outrage that he has presided over an increase in deportations.
The immigration advocacy group National Immigration Forum says it costs $23,000 on average for one person to go through the deportation process. "The record level of deportations...is a nightmare for millions of people and their families going about their daily lives and facing the prospect that a simple traffic stop may lead to the breakup of their family and the end of their American Dream," the group's leader Ali Noorani said in a statement.
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