U.S. deports nearly 400K in a year - a record

[The Northerner]

MIAMI - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton said on Tuesday his agency deported nearly 400,000 individuals during the fiscal year 2011 that just ended in September.

Morton announced the numbers in Washington, saying they were the largest in the agency's history.

ICE said about 55 percent of the 396,906 individuals deported had felony or misdemeanor convictions. Officials said the number of individuals convicted of crimes was up 89 percent from 2008.

Officials could not immediately say how many of those crimes related just to previous immigration violations. Individuals can be convicted of a felony just for returning to the U.S. or being found in the U.S. after the government orders them to leave.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/18/national/main20122063.shtml