Report: Deportations Down to Lowest Point Since 1973

The total number of illegal immigrants who have been deported by the federal government is at its lowest point since 1973. 

According to a Center for Immigration (CIS) report, the 364,700 projected removals in fiscal year 2013 “are the lowest since fiscal year 2007.” And those numbers are most likely inflated because reportedly “more than half of those are immigrants caught at the border but put through ICE deportation proceedings.”

“Total deportations in 2011, the latest year for which complete numbers are available, numbered 715,495 – the lowest level since 1973,” the report also found. 

CIS obtained the information even though Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is under a “gag order.” 

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at CIS, said the Obama administration’s policies are “dramatically suppressing interior enforcement.”

“Even though they are finding out about more illegal aliens than ever before, especially more criminal aliens, the ICE agents in the field have been ordered to look the other way,” she said.

Immigration advocates like Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) have said Obama should enact a deferred action program for all of the country’s illegal immigrants and complained that the Obama administration is deporting too many illegal immigrants. 

Last year, Obama, via executive fiat, enacted a deferred action program for children of illegal immigrants who are under 30 and came to the country before their 16th birthday. As CIS noted, that program has given temporary legal status to over 430,236 immigrants, and more than 80% of those who have applied for that program have succeeded. 

To further illustrate the lack of deportations under Obama, just “4 percent of deportations came from Homeland Security Investigations, which is the division responsible for worksite enforcement, anti-smuggling operations and tracking down immigrants who overstay their visas.” In addition, according to the Washington Times, “through the first 10 months of fiscal year 2013, ICE had removed just 128,441 criminal aliens — down 11 percent from the same period in 2012.”