According to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) the Massachusetts’ immigration court had the lowest deportation rate of any U.S. state last year while ranking as one of the top states in granting asylum to illegal aliens.
The state hit an all-time deportation low of only 26.9%, the national average is at 46.4%. Yet, it granted 75% of the asylum claims, ranking it the third highest asylum approval rate in the nation.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, said low deportation rates reflect Obama administration policy changes that favor immigrants.
“Under the law, the burden is on the alien to show that they qualify for relief — that has been flipped on its head,” Vaughan said. “It’s become a system where the illegal alien or applicant for relief is given the benefit of the doubt.”
The national deportation has declined drastically since the Obama administration implemented the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) that made criminal aliens a “priority” while limiting ICE’s ability to deport other deportable aliens. As of a June 2016 ICE report the agency is on track to complete only 230,000 deportations, the lowest number since 2006.
Read more on this story at The Boston Herald.
