Immigration officials keying in on deporting criminals

10:36 PM PST on Sunday, November 1, 2009

By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise

Federal agents are raiding thousands of homes of criminal illegal immigrants under Obama administration directives that emphasize apprehending dangerous criminals over arresting nonviolent illegal residents.

Newly compiled data show that in fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, the number of criminal illegal immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement fugitive-operations teams doubled, from more than 7,900 in fiscal year 2008 to almost 16,000.

The number of non-criminals arrested plummeted during the same year, from more than 26,200 to fewer than 19,200.

More than 45 percent of people arrested during the operations in fiscal year 2009 were criminals, compared to 17 percent in 2008. The data include non-fugitive illegal immigrants encountered by the fugitive teams, which search for and arrest illegal immigrants with outstanding deportation orders.

Earlier this year, ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton directed ICE's field offices to go through files on illegal immigrants with standing deportation orders and put criminals at the top of the stack, said Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE. A criminal is defined as someone convicted of a crime or a suspect with an outstanding criminal warrant.

Morton also rescinded a quota that each of ICE's 104 fugitive operations teams apprehend at least 50 criminal illegal immigrants a month. The quota did not differentiate between major and minor offenses. The focus now is on serious crimes such as murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking.

"These efforts promote public safety by ensuring that ICE's focus is on dangerous criminal aliens," Chandler said.

Non-criminals may be arrested, if, for example, immigration agents encounter them while raiding the home of a criminal.

EASIER TO CATCH

Immigrant-advocacy groups had sharply criticized ICE, saying it concentrated too much time and money on searching for and detaining illegal immigrants with no criminal records and was trying to pump up arrest numbers.

Non-criminals are often easier to find than criminals, who usually try to elude the police, they said.

Crystal Williams, deputy director for programs of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said she was impressed by the dramatic rise in arrests of criminals.

"For ICE to change the emphasis so quickly is unusual," Williams said. "This is not only good for immigrants, it's also good for taxpayers. This is where our resources should be concentrated."

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which favors greater limits on immigration, said he has no problem with the new focus because ICE will still arrest some non-criminals.

Krikorian said it is important that non-criminals with deportation orders continue to worry about being arrested, to ensure that the orders are taken seriously.

ICE's new focus on criminals extends to other agency programs.

Law-enforcement employees across the country who are trained by ICE to query criminal suspects about their immigration status are now being asked to put the highest priority on those accused of serious offenses.

'AMERICANIZED'

Murrieta's Cristina Ramirez was one of more than 90,000 non-criminals arrested by fugitive operations teams since ICE formed them in 2003.

She was apprehended on March 27, 2008, at her then-home in Nuevo and deported that day. Immigration authorities last month approved a visa for her to legally return to California. She is now back at home with her husband and four children.

Ramirez, 33, was 2 when she arrived in the United States with her parents on a border-crossing card that later expired.

Ramirez did not apply for legal residency until 1997. An immigration judge called her "Americanized" but ruled against her request because of a change in immigration law that tightened residency requirements. Judge Robert J. Barrett said Ramirez's application probably would have been approved if she had applied eight months earlier, before the law went into effect.

After four years of appeals, a deportation order was issued against Ramirez in 2001. Following her expulsion last year, her husband, David Meyer, petitioned U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to return her to the United States.

Ramirez's return was not guaranteed, even though she is married to a U.S. citizen and has four U.S. citizen children and U.S. citizen parents. Immigration authorities have denied many requests from deported immigrants in similar situations, Williams said.

When deciding whether to allow a deported illegal immigrant to return to a U.S.-citizen spouse, Immigration Services officers consider violations of immigration law, criminal records and other factors said Luz Figuereo Irazabal, an agency spokeswoman.

INCALCULABLE COSTS

Ramirez is now re-connecting with her family, which would visit her most weekends in Rosarito, where she was living.

She enjoys again being able to drive her children to school and help them with their homework. Six-year-old Jessilyn no longer throws the tantrums that became common after her mother's deportation. But she hates being away from Ramirez.

"She has separation anxiety," Ramirez said. "In the beginning, she would wake up screaming and crying if I wasn't around."

Now Ramirez takes Jessilyn with her each morning when she drives the older children to school, so the girl is not alone.

Her children's grades, which fell after her deportation, are back up.

"It was hard for me to concentrate on school," said son Oscar, 16. "I kept thinking about my mom. It felt like she was gone from my life forever."

Meyer said he's relieved his wife is back. But the after-effects of the deportation continue. The family continues to live in the home of Ramirez's parents. Their Nuevo house was foreclosed last year because of the money Meyer spent on attorney fees, living expenses for Ramirez and gas to visit her in Mexico. He filed for bankruptcy. Now they must rebuild their sullied credit.

"The hardship this all caused will be around for a long time," Meyer said. "It won't go away. And there's nothing that can give us back the time that was taken away from us."

Reach David Olson at 951-368-9462 or dolson@PE.com

CRIMINAL FOCUS

Under the Obama administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is focusing on arresting criminal illegal immigrants rather than people without criminal records.

17

Percent of people arrested by ICE fugitive operations teams who were criminals, fiscal year 2008, ending Sept. 30, 2008.

45

Percent of people arrested by ICE fugitive operations teams who were criminals, fiscal year 2009, ending Sept. 30, 2009.

7,919

Criminals arrested by ICE fugitive operations teams, fiscal year 2008.

15,944

Criminals arrested by ICE fugitive operations teams, fiscal year 2009.

35,094

Total arrested by ICE fugitive operations teams, fiscal year 2009.

SOURCE: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

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