The Obama administration deported 22,963 noncitizens from Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina combined during the fiscal year ending in September, a 13 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, federal immigration authorities confirmed Tuesday.
It is unknown how many of them were deported from Georgia because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tracks such stats by areas of operation, not by state.
Nationwide, the federal government deported 396,906 people last fiscal year, the largest number removed in ICE’s history. That represents a 1 percent increase in deportations from fiscal year 2010, when the federal government expelled 392,862.
Of those deported nationwide last fiscal year, nearly 55 percent -- or 216,698 -- were convicted of felonies or misdemeanors, ICE records show. ICE, which has come under criticism for deporting many people with no criminal records through a federal fingerprint-sharing program called Secure Communities, said that represents an 89 percent increase in the number of criminals deported since 2008.
Among those deported last fiscal year were:
- 1,119 convicted of homicide.
- 5,848 convicted of sexual offenses.
- 44,653 convicted of drug-related crimes.
- 35,927 convicted of driving under the influence.
ICE said 90 percent of last fiscal year’s deportations fell within its priorities and that two-thirds of the rest were either recent border-crossers or repeat immigration violators.
The Obama administration drew more criticism this summer when it announced it would tighten its focus on deporting criminal illegal immigrants and generally give special consideration to certain other groups of illegal immigrants, including those who were brought here as young children, graduated from high schools here or served in the U.S. military. Critics in Georgia accused President Barack Obama of playing politics and ignoring federal immigration laws.
“[We] came into office focused on creating a system of smart, effective immigration enforcement,” ICE Director John Morton told reporters in a conference call Tuesday. “In a world of limited resources, this means creating a rational set of priorities. We have done that and we think we have acted accordingly and that the numbers speak for themselves.”
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