Deportations of illegal immigrants hit record high, officials announce

[The Northerner]

More than 392,000 illegal immigrants were deported from the United States in fiscal year 2010, the highest number in the country’s history, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced on Wednesday.

“We have deployed unprecedented infrastructure, unprecedented technology, unprecedented manpower,” Napolitano said during a news conference in Washington, D.C.

Napolitano and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton attributed the numbers to increased border enforcement, workplace enforcement and an expansion of the department’s Secure Communities program.

Secure Communities, which uses fingerprints to identify illegal immigrants in state prisons and local jails, has gone from 14 jurisdictions in 2008 to more than 660, officials said. The department is on track to expand the program to every law-enforcement jurisdiction in the nation by 2013, Napolitano said.

Half of deported immigrants in the last fiscal year were convicted of crimes, Napolitano said. Of those, 33% were convicted of what ICE considered the most serious crimes, which included murder, rape and major drug crimes. The others were convicted of lesser crimes such as burglary, domestic violence, some property crimes and other offenses.

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/10/record-number-of-deportations-of-illegal-immigrants-in-fiscal-2010-officials-announce.html

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Okay, I'm not terribly comfortable with deporting violent criminals. Where do they go?

Do they get transferred to jail in their home country or are they just let loose?

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. Heard this on the news this morning. Ironic that Dem prez deports record number.

[pampango]

3. Obama takes his job more seriously than Bush who wanted to keep employers happy. Also,

I think Obama plans to go for comprehensive reform (I know, people have been saying that for 21 months now) and thinks he has to prove that the government is a serious about enforcing existing law before going for a big change.