President Barack Obama has further reduced the annual deportations of migrants living illegally in the United States down to less than 1 percent of the migrant population.

His deputies have even reduced the repatriation of migrants already convicted of major crimes against Americans, the Associated Press reported Oct. 6.

“The Obama administration deported fewer immigrants over the past 12 months than at any time since 2006, according to government figures obtained by The Associated Press… despite his pledge to focus on finding and deporting criminals living in the country illegally…

The overall total of 231,000 deportations generally does not include Mexicans who were caught at the border and quickly returned home by the U.S. Border Patrol. The figure does include roughly 136,700 convicted criminals deported in the last 12 months. Total deportations dropped 42 percent since 2012.”

The total of 94,000 repatriations of migrants who have not committed a major crime is is less than one-in-a-hundred of the roughly 11 million illegal migrants in the United States. Roughly 8 million migrants hold jobs that would otherwise go to unemployed Americans. The migrants also create a labor surplus that reduce wage levels for many Americans, boosting public support for the Democrats’ welfare programs and big-government policies.

“The Homeland Security Department has not yet publicly disclosed the new internal figures, which include month-by-month breakdowns and cover the period between Oct. 1, 2014, and Sept. 28…

The biggest surprise in the figures was the decline in criminal deportations. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson last year directed immigration authorities anew to focus on finding and deporting immigrants who pose a national security or public safety threat, those who have serious criminal records or those who recently crossed the Mexican border…

Obama has overseen the removal of more than 2.4 million immigrants since taking office, but deportations have been declining steadily in the last three years. Removals declined by more than 84,000 between the 2014 and 2015 budget years, the largest year-over-year decline since 2012.

The report noted the continued large-scale influx of illegals across the southern border — but did not say how many of the migrants were released into the United States pending the long-term resolution of claims for asylum and refugee status.

“As of the end of August, the Border Patrol arrested about 130,000 immigrants from countries other than Mexico, about 34,500 unaccompanied children and roughly 34,400 people traveling as families.”

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