Immigrant arrests on the rise
Devona Walker

The number of illegal immigrants removed from the Dallas area and Oklahoma increased dramatically in recent months, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

If the pace of the first five months of this fiscal year continues, the federal agency could see about a 40 percent increase in the number of illegal immigrants removed from north Texas and Oklahoma, Homeland Security spokesman Carl Rusnok said.

The federal fiscal year began Oct. 1. Through February, nearly 7,000 illegal immigrants had been removed, compared with 12,000 in all of the previous fiscal year.

Much of this activity can be attributed to better cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, Rusnok said. The agency has launched 13 programs under the ICE ACCESS program, including training for local law agencies to enforce immigration law. Other programs include asset forfeiture, a fraud task force and border enforcement security task forces.

Nationwide, the agency estimated 573,000 fugitive immigrants were in the U.S., a drop of 60,000 from Oct. 2006. That’s the first time the count has decreased in the agency’s history. Fugitive immigrants are those who have been ordered to leave the country, but have not.

In fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, agents in Dallas, north Texas and Oklahoma arrested 1,600 illegal immigrants, more than double the number of arrests made in fiscal year 2006. Of those arrested, 699 were fugitives and 168 were illegal immigrants with criminal convictions. Nearly 1,100 of those arrested have been removed to their countries of origin.

But immigration enforcement critics remain skeptical.

“First of all, there must be probable cause. If the police are stopping them because they committed an infraction, that’s one thing. If they are stopping them because they believe they might be an illegal immigrant, that’s racial profiling,â€