Chattanooga: Deportations rise with tighter enforcement

By: Perla Trevizo
(Contact)
The deportation of illegal immigrants is on the rise, according to immigration officials who attribute the record numbers to increased enforcement.

Deportations in the first five and a half months of fiscal year 2008 were higher than in all of 2001, according to U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement figures. In all of 2001, 116,202 immigrants were deported. To date in 2008, 119,429 immigrants have been ordered to return home, records show.

Scott Sutterfield, assistant field office director in the Office of Detention and Removal in New Orleans, said that over the last several years immigration officials have redoubled their efforts to detain and deport illegal immigrants.

He credited “fugitive operations teamsâ€