Washington, D.C. (November 4, 2013) – The video and transcript are now available for Deportation Numbers Unwrapped: Raw Statistics Reveal the Real Story of ICE Enforcement in Decline, a Center for Immigration Studies panel discussion last week at the National Press Club. Statistics reveal that ICE deportations of illegal aliens are at their lowest since 2007, and that about half of the deportations they took credit for were actually Border Patrol cases, not illegal aliens arrested in the interior. In addition to exposing that ICE is deporting fewer illegal aliens despite having more resources, these statistics undermine the administration’s claims of record ICE deportations. Deportations of criminal illegal aliens fell as well, even though ICE agents are encountering more of them in the interior.
View the report: http://cis.org/ICE-Illegal-Immigrant-Deportations
View the panel video: http://cis.org/Videos/Panel-Illegal-Immigrant-Deportations-ICE
View the panel transcript: http://cis.org/PanelTranscripts/Panel-Illegal-Immigrant-Deportations-ICE
During the discussion, Representative Lou Barletta stated, “This pokes holes into the false perception that this administration is giving that our borders are more secure.” Considering ICE has better tools and more resources and personnel than ever before, the congressman believes that the administration is using “nothing more than smoke and mirrors to set the stage for an amnesty bill.” Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies for the Center and author of the report released at the event, presented data that ICE has been withholding on 2013 deportations and described how the administration is using arrests of illegal border crossers to create the illusion that ICE is doing more enforcement and mask the effects of policies that have greatly suppressed enforcement in the interior.
In another example of our immigration system’s dysfunction, Ms. Vaughan pointed out that more than 870,000 illegal aliens who have been ordered deported by immigration courts are still living in the country. Calling the courts “a theater of the absurd,” Dan Cadman, a former high-ranking official at ICE and the INS, stated, “Such a huge number staggers the mind – close to a million aliens who have made a mockery of our system because they were not detained, and obviously had no significant restraints upon them to mitigate the chance that they would flee.”
Participants:
U.S. Representative Lou Barletta (PA): Serves on the House Homeland Security Committee and Chairs the 112th Congress Immigration Reform Caucus (subject to House schedule)
Dan Cadman: Former INS / ICE official with 29 years of headquarters and field immigration law enforcement experience as an agent, supervisor, and manager.
Jessica Vaughan: Director of Policy Studies, Center for Immigration Studies
Mark Krikorian, Moderator: Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies