California more lenient on deportations

ocregister.com
by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter
October 26th, 2011, 2:55 pm

While a record number of deportations nationwide has been reported for the past year, federal immigration courts in California have become more lenient in letting people remain in the country, according to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse and a story by California Watch.

From October 2010 through September of this year, there were a record 396,906 deportations in the U.S. – more than half of them illegal immigrants with felony or misdemeanor convictions – Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced last week.

But during the first two years of the Obama administration, the number of immigrants ordered deported by the California courts has declined nearly 10 percentage points, according to TRAC. About half of all cases now end in deportation.

The biggest drop came in San Diego, where 64 percent of cases resulted in deportation in 2009 but in the past year was 46 percent.

Immigration attorneys interviewed by California Watch said that ICE has been more aggressive in arresting people, but judges are giving detainees more time to sort things out.

“I see ICE being as aggressive as ever,â€