Thread: Deportation statistics said to be inflated

August 23, 2012
By Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times

The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is charging that the Obama administration has “falsified” deportation records to artificially boost numbers — a move critics of the Homeland Security Department have long suspected.

Rep. Lamar Smith, the Texan who runs the committee, said the Obama administration has for the past several years been mixing some Border Patrol apprehensions with the deportation statistics from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency chiefly responsible for interior enforcement and for deporting aliens.

His investigation found that when the Border Patrol numbers are subtracted, deportations actually have gone down every year since Mr. Obama first took office in 2009, dropping from about 395,000 that year to about 330,000 in 2011.

And 2012 is shaping up to have even fewer deportations once the Border Patrol figures are subtracted, the committee said.

“It is dishonest to count illegal immigrants apprehended by the Border Patrol along the border as ICE removals,” Mr. Smith said. “These ‘removals’ from the Border Patrol program do not subject the illegal immigrant to any penalties or bars for returning to the U.S. This means a single illegal immigrant can show up at the border and be removed numerous times in a single year — and counted each time as a removal.”

ICE did not directly dispute Mr. Smith’s claim but defended its enforcement strategy.

“The administration’s immigration enforcement strategy is focused on enhancing public safety, border security and the integrity of the immigration system,” said spokesman Ross Feinstein, adding that the administration’s prioritization has boosted the number of criminals being deported and has led to a drop in the number of illegal immigrants trying to cross the border in the first place.

“These historic results reflect the success of the administration’s strategy and are attributable, in part, to the unprecedented support ICE is providing to the Border Patrol along the southwest border. The combined efforts of ICE and [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] have created the most effective immigration enforcement effort in recent history,” he said.

The Border Patrol and ICE are the two chief immigration law enforcement branches of the federal government.

Border Patrol agents’ jurisdiction runs along the nation’s international boundaries, and many of the illegal immigrants they apprehend are returned — usually straight to Mexico — rather than put in formal removal proceedings. That is called a voluntary return, and it carries none of the penalties associated with formal deportation, which critics say means there is little risk to turning around and trying to re-enter the U.S. illegally again.

ICE, meanwhile, generally handles removals, which are more formal proceedings complete with potential penalties.

Mr. Smith’s committee obtained documents that show 72,000 people caught by the Border Patrol and sent to ICE under the Border Patrol’s Alien Transfer Exit Program are being included in the ICE statistics. Administration officials told the committee they have been including those numbers in their official count since 2011.

The Obama administration has been trying to walk a fine line between those who want to see more deportations and immigrant-advocacy groups that say deportations should he halted altogether.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano has said that her department only has the resources to deport about 400,000 aliens a year, and she uses that limit to justify the administration’s policy that rank-and-file illegal immigrants without major criminal records shouldn’t be a priority for deportation.

Republicans, though, say the administration is turning a blind eye to most illegal immigrants, enacting de facto amnesty.

Deportation statistics said to be inflated - Washington Times

this is a big lie Obama is telling we have to diffuse between now and election day.

W

By: Mickey McCarter

08/27/2012 ( 7:30am)

HSToday.us

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that it removed roughly 397,000 illegal aliens from the country in fiscal year 2011. So far this year, the agency said it has removed about 334,000 as of now.

But Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Friday those numbers are falsely inflated.

Starting in FY 2009, ICE began adding removals by US Border Patrol to its own numbers, Smith claimed in a statement. As this was not done in previous years, the additional number makes it appear that ICE removed more illegal aliens than in previous years.

Border Patrol removes illegal aliens under its Alien Transfer Exit Program (ATEP). Basically, if Border Patrol catches a trespasser along the US border, they transfer them to a set location for rapid removal from the country. Border Patrol sends the illegal aliens quickly back across the border.

By contrast, ICE usually catches illegal aliens once they actually have entered the United States. Those illegal aliens are arrested, jailed and charged with a crime before being deported.

According to documentation obtained by Smith, ICE only captured about 360,000 illegal aliens in FY 2011 if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) counted them in the traditional manner, excluding ATEP removals. This year's numbers fall from 334,000 to 263,000. By Smith's calculations, ICE removals therefore have fallen 14 percent since FY 2008 and 19 percent since FY 2009.

The falsely inflated numbers however make it appear that ICE has increased removals of illegal aliens since 2008, Smith said.

"Internal Department of Homeland Security documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee reveal that President Obama and other administration officials have falsified their record to achieve their so-called historic deportation numbers. Administration officials claim that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported a record number of illegal immigrants but the facts show that they have fabricated their deportation statistics by illegitimately adding over 100,000 removals to their deportation figures for the past two years," Smith said.

DHS has included the Border Patrol ATEP numbers in its ICE removals report since 2011, he noted.

"It is dishonest to count illegal immigrants apprehended by the Border Patrol along the border as ICE removals. And these 'removals' from the Border Patrol program do not subject the illegal immigrant to any penalties or bars for returning to the United States," Smith added.

Under ATEP, an illegal alien essentially is free to try to cross the border again because he or she has no arrest record, Smith said. Worse, ICE can count such an illegal immigrant as a removal more than once because Border Patrol can remove illegal trespassers multiple times under ATEP.

Smith blasted the White House for trying to appear tougher on immigration enforcement.

"In a campaign season when administration officials have made a habit of spinning their numbers to ignore their real record, it's no surprise that they are doing the same to their immigration record. It seems like President Obama is trying to trick the American people into thinking he is enforcing our immigration laws. But no amount of spin can cover up the facts. It's bad enough that the president has neglected to enforce our immigration laws but it's even worse that his administration would distort statistics to deceive the American people," he said.

Besides counting removals from ATEP, ICE included another mysterious 40,000 removals so far in 2012, Smith said. This year ICE reported 221,656 arrests but 334,249 removals so far. That means their numbers are 112,000 greater than they should be. But ATEP removals only number 72,030 this year so far, leaving roughly another 40,000 removals.

One Old Vet

Homeland Security Today: ICE Falsely Inflating Removal Numbers of Illegal Aliens, Smith Claims

Monday, 27 August 2012 09:42
Written by R. Cort Kirkwood
The New American



The Obama administration is fudging the numbers in claims it is deporting “record” numbers of illegal aliens, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee reported last week.

The committee, led by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas, pictured), accused the administration of inflating the numbers by including illegal aliens apprehended at the border in the total of those deported.

Observers have noted the oddity of the president touting his administration's deportations, given that his immigration deputies have flatly stated that they will not deport illegal immigrants who meet the criteria of the failed DREAM Act, a position Obama himself made official in June, when he announced that young illegals were free to stay in the country.

The Numbers

The committee put the numbers together with documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They “show that the Obama administration is cooking the books to achieve their so-called ‘record’ deportation numbers for illegal immigrants and that removals are actually significantly down — not up — from 2009,” the committee reported in a release.

Obama began cooking the books last year, the committee reported:

Beginning in 2011, the Committee has learned that Obama administration officials at the Department of Homeland Security started to include numbers from the Alien Transfer Exit Program (ATEP) in its year-end removal numbers.

The ATEP is a joint effort between ICE and Customs and Border Protection that transfers illegal immigrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border to another point along the Southwest border for removal. But it is illegitimate to count illegal immigrants apprehended by the Border Patrol along the Southwest border as ICE removals. There are no penalties or bars attached when illegal immigrants are sent back via ATEP and they can simply attempt re-entry.

Pulling out the ATEP numbers dramatically changes the number of deportations under Obama. The numbers for 2012 are nearly 20 percent below those in 2009. The committee continued,

When ATEP removals are subtracted from ICE’s deportation numbers, the 2011 removal total would drop from approximately 397,000 to roughly 360,000 and the 2012 removal total would drop from about 334,000 to around 263,000 (annualized this is estimated to be a drop from about 400,000 to 315,000).

This means that ICE removals for this year will be about 14% below 2008 (369,000) and 19% below 2009 (389,000).

The internal documents also reveal a discrepancy between arrests and actual removals. Specifically, ICE has reported 221,656 arrests yet report 334,249 removals for 2012 so far — a discrepancy of nearly 112,000 removals. ATEP accounts for 72,030 removals within this discrepancy, but there are over 40,000 removals that remain unaccounted for.

Rep. Smith isn’t happy about the administration's inflation of the deportation numbers. He stated:

Internal Department of Homeland Security documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee reveal that President Obama and other administration officials have falsified their record to achieve their so-called historic deportation numbers.

Administration officials claim that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported a record number of illegal immigrants but the facts show that they have fabricated their deportation statistics by illegitimately adding over 100,000 removals to their deportation figures for the past two years.

Since 2011, the Obama administration has included numbers from a Border Patrol program that returns illegal immigrants to Mexico right after they cross the Southwest border in their year-end deportation statistics. It is dishonest to count illegal immigrants apprehended by the Border Patrol along the border as ICE removals. And these "removals" from the Border Patrol program do not subject the illegal immigrant to any penalties or bars for returning to the U.S. This means a single illegal immigrant can show up at the border and be removed numerous times in a single year — and counted each time as a removal. When the numbers from this Border Patrol program are removed from this year’s deportation data, it shows that removals are actually down nearly 20% from 2009. Another 40,000 removals are also included in the final deportation count but it is unclear where these removals came from.

No Surprise

Analysts say that the fact that President Obama is padding the number of deportations to provide a false picture is nothing new and no surprise.

ICE data going back to 2007 show an increase of deportations of about 27 percent from that year through 2008, from 291,060 to 369,221. By the close of 2009, the first full year of the Obama administration, they rose to 389,834, a mere 5.6 percent increase beyond 2008.

And that trend continued, the data show, with 392,862 in 2010 and 396,906 in 2011, increases of 0.78 percent and 1 percent, without taking into account the phony ATEP additions.

Given that subtracting those numbers leaves a figure of about 360,000 for 2011, according to the committee, the number of deportations actually fell 8.4 percent from 2010 through 2011. For 2012, if the committee’s extrapolation of data prove accurate at about 315,000 deportations for the year, the number will have dropped another 12.5 percent.

They will have dropped 14.7 percent from 2008, the last year of the Bush administration.

DREAM Amnesty Here Anyway

As mentioned earlier, observers have noted that it's something of a surprise that Obama touts his deportations. His deputies, as The New American has been reporting for more than a year, declared the DREAM Act de facto law, and the president made it official in June, when he announced his amnesty for young illegals that will also include their parents and relatives.

While original estimates suggested the number of beneficiaries would about 800,000, that number quickly jumped to 1.7 million, according to the New York Times.

On August 15, when the amnesty took effect and illegals could officially apply, the lines were more than a mile long in some cities. Those lines don’t bode well for Americans, who live in an economy wracked by 8.3 percent unemployment.

As The New American reported two days before the amnesty began, illegals are a tremendous drain on taxpayers. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, 26 percent of illegals live in poverty. As well, 47 percent of illegals use welfare, CIS reported. Thirty-nine percent use food assistance and 35 percent use Medicaid.

CIS estimated that the cost of educating illegal aliens and their U.S.-born children is more than $39 billion annually. It also reported that about .6.5 million illegals, 62 percent of the 10.5 million here, do not carry health insurance. They are 14.6 percent of the uninsured population.

House Judiciary Committee: Obama Fudging Deportation Numbers

Added an article from above to the Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/content.php?r=8...tation-Numbers