ICE officials set quotas to deport more illegal immigrants

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

Seeking to reverse a steep drop in deportations, U.S. immigration authorities have set controversial new quotas for agents. At the same time, officials have stepped back from an Obama administration commitment to focus enforcement efforts primarily on illegal immigrants who are dangerous or have violent criminal backgrounds.

The moves, outlined in internal documents and a recent e-mail by a senior U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official to field directors nationwide, differ from pledges by ICE chief John T. Morton and his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, to focus enforcement on the most dangerous illegal immigrants. That approach represented a break from the mass factory raids and neighborhood sweeps the Bush administration used to drive up arrests.

In a Feb. 22 memo, James M. Chaparro, head of ICE detention and removal operations, wrote that, despite record deportations of criminals, the overall number of removals was down. While ICE was on pace to achieve "the Agency goal of 150,000 criminal alien removals" for the year ending Sept. 30, total deportations were set to barely top 310,000, "well under the Agency's goal of 400,000," and nearly 20 percent behind last year's total of 387,000, he wrote.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032604891_pf.html

[ORDagnabbit]

1. sounds good.. more jobs for the legal immigrants and natives...now if we could just get them to

fine the hell out of businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

[The Northerner]

2. +1

[unabelladonna]

4. good. what is it about the word "illegal"

that many people don't understand. we can't afford the cost of illegal immigration.

[the other one]

3. Sounds bad - defy the president

Beauracracy / law enforcement run amok

[a la izquierda]

5. ah, an "illegal immigration thread"

where DU's humanitarian nature truly shines.

[im1013]

6. +1,000

:wtf:

[AlphaCentauri]

7. I have never read a story about a DUer who has taken a job from an illegal alien

make me wonder why?

might be that many of the opinions about illegals are based on fictional notes spread from right wing sites.

[nomorenomore08]

8. The knee-jerkism just astounds me.

Makes me wonder if Republicans aren't the only ones who, on some level, are nervous about changing demographics, if you know what I mean. :shrug: