Looks like the Obama administration is already well on their way to reach their 400,000 deportations quota for Fiscal Year 2013, which incidentally doesn't even begin until this October.
TRAC reports that by the end of June 2012 the number of pending deportation cases before the Immigration Courts has reached a new all-time high of 314,147. The Obama administration's aggressive deportation campaign has resulted in a 5.6% increase of backlogged deportations since September 2011, which is an astounding 20% increase from what was seen at the end of FY 2010.
Obama apologists would have you believe that most pending deportations are criminals that have been caught due to the President's "smart immigration enforcement" directive that allegedly prioritizes the deportation of criminal aliens.
And they would be wrong.
To this end, TRAC has determined that through the end of June 2012 only 7.9% of the 314,147 pending deportation cases involve individuals charged with criminal grounds of removal, actions adverse to national security, or aiding terrorism. This is a decrease from the number of pending criminal deportations in fiscal year 2011 (8.3%), and fiscal year 2010 (9.1%).
In fact, according TRAC's nonpartisan and unbiased evaluation of the statistics, the vast majority of pending deportation cases DO NOT involve criminals. To the contrary, most people facing deportation are only charged with immigration violations, which are civil and not criminal in nature. Examples include entering the country illegally, entering legally but overstaying a visa, or violating other procedural requirements of the immigration law, i.e., failing to maintain a full course of study at a University.
Instead, statistics reveal that under Barack Obama pending noncriminal deportations have risen sharply over the last three years: 236,415 in FY 2010; 270,159 at the end of September 2011; to 286,159 during 2012.
So when you hear President Obama saying that his administration is engaging in "smart immigration enforcement by targeting criminal aliens" the statistics clearly prove that he is lying to you.
And by the way, what do you think is going to happen to all the DREAMers that apply for deferred action when their application is denied in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. Needless to say, there are potentially another 800,000 soon to be instituted deportation cases created by individuals that voluntarily get in queue for the Obama deportation grinder.
Here is the bottom line, if President Obama is really serious about wanting to put an end to the deportation of DREAMers a good start would be to 1. actually stop deporting DREAMers, and 2. to sign an executive order that has the full force of law and removes discretion from the prosecutors.
And parenthetically, maybe it is about time that Obama includes "immigration" as an important issue on his campaign website. His opponent has.
Just a thought.
ICE's defense -
http://www.texastribune.org/immigration-in-texas/immigration/feds-defend-deportation-rates-backlog-swells/
Not sure about the fine points mentioned in that article justifies though.
Posted by: Backlogged | Jul 24, 2012 at 10:12 AM