Aggressive deportation strategies employed by the US government deliver questionable results, focusing less on criminals and more on hard working men and women, Samuel Logan writes for ISN Security Watch.

By Samuel Logan for ISN Security Watch


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The issues surrounding immigration inside the United States are among a number of items the Obama administration has yet to address, and Janet Napolitano, the new secretary of Homeland Security is not waiting on her boss to make her own stamp on what appears to be the beginning of a new approach to controlling immigration. She’s starting with deportation.

Since its inception in 2003, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, organized under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has employed an aggressive approach to deportation, targeting both criminal and noncriminal illegal immigrants. But a recent report published by the Migration Policy Institute found that since 2006, ICE has focused more on meeting quotas and less on capturing criminal illegal immigrants.

According to the New York Times piece that first published the report’s findings, ICE had relaxed its requirements for deporting criminals, while at the same time telling Congress it was focused on “rounding up the most threatening - criminals and terrorism suspects.â€