The White House released a statement on Wednesday saying that in the last year, the Obama administration has deported a record-setting high number of illegal immigrants from the US. The announcement said that more than 392,000 illegal aliens had been deported, half of them convicted criminals.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detailed that of those removed from US soil in the fiscal year ending September 30 there were 45,000 drug offenders, 1,000 murderers, 28,000 drunk drivers and 6,000 sex offenders. While the agency was expecting numbers to be past 400,000, it is still a record number, surpassing 2009 which was 389,834 deportations.
Targeting criminals is in keeping with the Department of Homeland Security emphasis of using deportation as a crime-fighting mechanism. "It has been another record-breaking year at ICE - one that has seen ICE enforce the law at record levels, and in sensible, firm and thoughtful ways," commented Janet Napolitano, who is the Homeland Security Secretary.
On top of the deportations, efforts have been increased to target employers using illegal workers. There were reportedly 180 employers, owners and managers who had been charged for employing unauthorized workers and over $50 million had been collected in fines for the same offense.
Napolitano said she realizes that there must be pathways for unauthorized immigrants, which number in estimates of 11 million, to apply for citizenship, but that changes need to be made to the underlying immigration laws to fully deal with the nations immigration problems.
