Government announces 10 percent drop in year-to-year deportations

Mexico, 241,493

Guatemala, 47,769

Honduras, 37,049

El Salvador, 21,602

Dominican Republic, 2,462

Ecuador, 1,616

Brazil, 1,500

Colombia, 1,429

Nicaragua, 1,383

Jamaica, 1,119

The Obama administration has halted its record-setting pace of deportations, carrying out 10 percent fewer expulsions in the fiscal year ending in September compared to the year before.

In announcing the new figures Thursday, administration officials attributed the drop to a shift in their immigration enforcement policies.

They said they have been focusing more on expelling violent criminals and recent border crossers. Nearly 60 percent of those removed — or deported — last year had previously been convicted of a crime, the highest percentage in the last five fiscal years, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In all, ICE reported 368,644 expulsions in fiscal year 2013. That is down from 409,849 in fiscal year 2012 — the largest number removed in ICE’s history and a 3 percent increase from the year before, when the previous record was set at 396,906.

“We did a better job of identifying serious criminal offenders,” ICE Acting Director John Sandweg told reporters on a conference call Thursday. “Because serious criminal cases take more time it does have an impact on your overall removal numbers.”

The announcement comes as President Barack Obama continues to push for the passage of immigration overhaul legislation, including a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States. Comprehensive immigration bills remain stalled in the Republican-led House. But federal lawmakers are expected to wrestle with immigration when they return to Washington next year.

Citing the government’s record numbers of expulsions, immigrant-rights activists have been ratcheting up pressure on the Obama administration to halt all deportations. Last month, they locked themselves to the gates outside a downtown Atlanta building used by federal immigration authorities. More than a dozen were arrested during the protest.

Obama, who has said he doesn’t have the legal authority to stop all deportations, continued to draw fire from immigrant rights groups Thursday.

“President Obama’s record on deportations is outrageous,” Cristina Jimenez, managing director of United We Dream — an immigrant advocacy group — said in a prepared statement. “Just today, we learned that over 360,000 people were deported (in fiscal year 2013). These are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, workers, business owners, caregivers.”

Other groups have accused the Obama administration of doing an end run around Congress and watering down federal immigration enforcement.

“It further indicates the lack of any sincere effort of enforcement on the part of this administration,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based organization that supports reducing immigration levels. “The deportation claims are probably more to try to convince the American public that our immigration laws are being enforced so they can get their amnesty bill through, than it is real enforcement.”