Record number of deportations from Texas in last 12 months

Associated Press
Nov. 6, 2008, 8:22PM

SAN ANTONIO — Federal immigration enforcement officials have deported more than 100,000 illegal immigrants from Texas in the past 12 months.

The regional offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement released its annual figures Thursday, touting record results from a crackdown on immigrants already convicted of crimes and those dodging standing deportation orders.

ICE agents deported more than 53,000 illegal immigrants from South and Central Texas in the past 12 months. They returned more than 16,300 illegal immigrants to their home countries from North Texas and Oklahoma. During the same time period, agents removed 17,300 illegal immigrants from West Texas and more than 15,770 from Southeast Texas.

Nationally, ICE deported 349,000 illegal immigrants, a 20 percent increase from the previous year.

The San Antonio region, which includes 58 counties in South and Central Texas, started deportation proceedings against 11,700 immigrants already incarcerated. That was a 220 percent increase from a year earlier.

ICE's Dallas office, which covers 128 counties in in North Texas and the entire state of Oklahoma, began deportation proceedings against 15,200 incarcerated immigrants.

The agency's El Paso office, which includes the 16 westernmost counties of Texas and New Mexico, started deportation proceedings against nearly 6,800 incarcerated immigrants.

ICE's Houston region, which is in charge of 53 counties in Southeast Texas, began deportation proceedings against 13,360 incarcerdated immigrants.

The San Antonio Office of Detention and Removal Operations had the second highest number of deportation and criminal arrests in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

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