Record Number of Deportations

For the third year in a row, Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that another record has been broken.  They report that for the year ending in September, 396,906 people were deported.  A little more than half of the people deported had felony or misdemeanor convictions.  This represents an 89% increase over 2008.  More than 1,000 of those were convicted of murder, 5,800 convicted of sex crimes and about 80,000 convicted of drug related crimes.  Roughly 66% of those deported had recently crossed the border or had been caught crossing into the United States repeatedly.  Part of the reason for the high number of deportations of criminals has been attributed to the increasing involvement of local law enforcement officials and the Department of Homeland Security who report illegal immigrants to federal officials who request that they remain in local custody until their cases are concluded and then pick them up and place them into deportation.  What is concerning some people is that some of the people being deported only committed minor crimes.  Questions are being raised about whether the increased deportation efforts are warranted because due to the economic slow down, the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States is at the lowest its been in 40 years.  

For more information about the Chicago criminal defense attorneys at Legal Defenders, P.C., visit us at www.thelegaldefenders.com or call us anytime at 1-800-228-7295.