Arrests Of Immigrants With Criminal Records On The Rise
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Arrests of Immigrants With Criminal Records on the RiseTuesday, November 03, 2009
PrintShareThisLOS ANGELES — Immigration agents assigned to track down people who have ignored deportation orders have increasingly arrested immigrants with criminal records during the past year, new data show.
Data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement show a shift from the prior three years, when more than 70 percent of immigrants arrested by fugitive operations teams had no criminal histories.
About 45 percent of the 35,000 immigrants arrested by the teams during the 2009 fiscal year had criminal convictions. The figure is up from 23 percent during the prior year.
ICE has long claimed it focused on arresting immigrants with criminal convictions who ignored orders from immigration judges to leave the country.
But most people arrested had no criminal histories, which prompted outcries from immigrant rights groups.
ICE director John Morton said earlier this year the agency would focus on finding immigrants with criminal records or who have ignored deportation orders. However, he said other illegal immigrants would be arrested if they were present during the operations,
"The goal is to prevent crime rather than simply to respond to it," ICE spokesman Brandon Alvarez-Montgomery said.
One reason for the change is that agents are working more closely with local law enforcement to develop leads, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.
Immigrants rights advocates were skeptical of the numbers and wondered whether the data marked a real change in a program they have long criticized as a source of fear in immigrant neighborhoods.
It's unclear whether the Obama administration has shifted the program's focus or whether agents in some regions have just been more successful at finding criminals, said Carl Bergquist, policy advocate for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
"I think the jury is still out," added Paromita Shah, associate director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild.
Earlier this year, Morton also announced the fugitive teams had stopped using arrest quotas.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said agents should have discretion about who they arrest, given what he considers the daunting task of finding more than 500,000 immigrants who have evaded deportation orders.
"They've got to start somewhere, and they look for people obviously that have national security issues as well as serious criminals," said Krikorian, whose organization favors stricter limits on immigration.
"As long as they're not sending the message that other illegal aliens will simply be let go, then I don't have a problem with it." he said.
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I AM SO GLAD TO KNOW THERE IS A BLOG LIKE THIS WE CAN EXPOSE OUR THOUGHTS, BUT TODAY SOMETHING STROKE MY HEART WHEN MY HUSBAND SHOWED ME THE YOU TUBE VIDEO, WHERE A MEXICAN POLITITIAN EXPOSED THE MEXICAN AGENDA FOR THE US BORDER WITH MEXICO!!! THE LINK IS THIS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HSgbeTegko
NOW THE QUESTION IS, WHAT HAD OUR GOVERNMENT DONE WITH THIS BUG?? NONE!!! NOW THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT HAS POSTED HIM IN CANADA TO GAIN SUPPORT WITH OUR NORTHERN NEIGHBOURS!!! NOW THAT CANADA HAS DENIED THE MEXICANS VISAS FOR FREE AS JUST BEFORE LOZANO MERINO (THIS MEXICAN POLITITIAN) TOOK OFFICE IN OTTAWA, ANY COINCIDENCE?? DONT KNOW!!! THIS MADE ME ANGRY AS HELL!! :twisted:
Re: Arrests Of Immigrants With Criminal Records On The Rise
Quote:
But most people arrested had no criminal histories, which prompted outcries from immigrant rights groups.
[/quote]
We should first determine an individuals immigrations status, before we determine they have "immigrant rights".
Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but what supposed "rights" do illegal immigrants have? Besides "perceived rights" by others that have beat the system and came here illegally and are now Americans.
Lets prove who a person is, so lets just prove they are an American first other then that they have no supposed right(s) to anything, except a trip back over the border. Its done in 90% of the rest of the world.
Immigration agents arresting more criminals
November 5, 2009
Immigration agents arresting more criminals
Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics reflect a new priority on nabbing those who are in the country illegally with a criminal history.
BY CINDY CARCAMO
The Orange County Register
Immigration agents in charge of chasing down illegal immigrants who are avoiding deportation orders are increasingly focusing their efforts on arresting those with criminal records.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement statistics reflect a shift in the new administration's focus compared to the last three years.
For instance, three years ago only 22 percent of those arrested by fugitive operations agents in the Southern California area had criminal records.
During this fiscal year, more than 50 percent of the 3,039 arrests in the same area had a criminal history.
Beefed-up manpower, stronger partnerships with local law enforcement and a stronger directive from the top to focus on those with criminal backgrounds who are in the country illegally have led to the change, said Robert Naranjo, assistant field office director. He helps lead the agency's Los Angeles Office of Detention and Removal Operations.
Naranjo, whose teams focus on finding those who are in the country illegally with standing deportation orders, said stronger ties with local law enforcement have led to good leads and arrests.
"Criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety are a public priority," he said. "We are prioritizing the criminals but we are continuing to pursue cases involving non-criminal immigration fugitives who have ignored court orders to leave the country."
While agents will continue to arrest those in the country illegally when they run across them during operations, Naranjo emphasized the agency's priority.
"Like any law enforcement agency we have a finite number of resources, so we have to prioritize," he said.
The ramped up manpower is especially evident in Orange County, where there are now two teams -- one in Santa Ana and another in Laguna Niguel -- dedicated to tracking down people who have ignored orders by an immigration judge to be deported. That's a departure from 2003 when there were no teams in the county. Instead, local operations were run out of Los Angeles.
The two teams were deployed in 2007 to Orange County. In addition, Los Angeles now has eight teams, compared to only two six years ago.
Agency officials have long said they have focused on arresting and deporting people with criminal convictions who ignored deportations orders.
However, immigrant rights activists had accused the agency of not doing what they claimed. The issue came to a head after the Migration Policy Institute highlighted the agency's data, which showed that most of those arrested had no criminal records.
While heartened by the recent numbers, some immigrant rights activists, say they’re waiting to see what the next fiscal year’s numbers will reveal.
“There is clearly a change in the numbers and we welcome that but we want it to be even more focused so they can have lower number of arrests and a much higher percentage of criminals swept up in fugitive operations,â€
