According to the Associated Press, the Obama administration has deported fewer illegal aliens in the last 12 months than any other time since 2006. There were approximately 231,000 deportations in fiscal year 2015 that ended on Sept. 30, a 42% decrease since 2012.
The biggest surprise is the decline in criminal deportations, only around 136,700 of those deported in the last year were convicted criminals. This is the lowest levels of criminal deportations since President Obama took office in 2009, despite his promise to focus on finding and deporting criminals that are living here illegally.
In April, Homeland Secretary, Jeh Johnson told Congress "With the resources we have ... I'm interested in focusing on criminals and recent illegal arrivals at the border."
However, these declining numbers suggest that the department has been failing to find criminally convicted illegal aliens that fall within its July 2015 Priority Enforcement Program that drastically reduced the number of criminal acts that could prompt deportation for criminal aliens.
Homeland Security attributes these low numbers to an increase in in the number of illegal aliens from countries, other than Mexico, coming across the border and the surge of unaccompanied minors that crossed the border illegally in 2014. The U.S. can easily send home Mexican illegal aliens but must fly others home, which is more expensive and time consuming. And since President Obama took office, his administration has been counting turn-backs as deportations.
Over 257,000 illegal aliens from other countries beside Mexico were caught crossing the border during the 2014 budget year. More than 68,000 were unaccompanied minors and family members. This is the first time that illegal aliens from other countries outnumbered those from Mexico.
Read more at The Associated Press.
