ICE Charges Criminal Activity in Fewer Deportation Proceedings

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ICE Charges Criminal Activity in
Fewer Deportation Proceedings

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is identifying fewer individuals as deportable owing to alleged criminal activity[1], according to the latest Immigration Court data on new deportation proceedings. During the most recent quarter (January - March 2012), ICE sought to deport a total of 5,450 individuals on criminal grounds. While this number is preliminary and is likely to increase once late reports are in, it represents a drastic decrease compared with 10,732 individuals against whom ICE sought deportation orders just two years ago (during the period January - March 2010). See Figure 1 and Table 1. Figure 1. Deportation Orders Sought in Immigration Court Based on Alleged Criminal Activity Table 1. Deportation Orders Sought in Immigration Court Based on Alleged Criminal Activity Quarter and Year ICE Filings in Immigration Court Total Filings Criminal Activity Percent Criminal Jan-Mar 2008 55,701 9,736 17% Apr-Jun 2008 59,512 8,929 15% Jul-Sep 2008 61,564 9,277 15% Oct-Dec 2008 58,279 9,045 16% Jan-Mar 2009 63,257 10,066 16% Apr-Jun 2009 66,635 10,588 16% Jul-Sep 2009 66,950 10,901 16% Oct-Dec 2009 57,967 10,027 17% Jan-Mar 2010 61,359 10,732 17% Apr-Jun 2010 65,728 10,638 16% Jul-Sep 2010 61,245 9,369 15% Oct-Dec 2010 55,263 8,841 16% Jan-Mar 2011 58,955 9,085 15% Apr-Jun 2011 61,192 9,406 15% Jul-Sep 2011 60,196 8,676 14% Oct-Dec 2011 49,343 7,080 14% Jan-Mar 2012* 37,659 5,450 14% * Preliminary counts based on EOIR records as of 3/28/2012. Filings can be expected to increase once late reporting is incorporated. Court filings began dropping even before ICE Director John Morton issued his June 17, 2011 directive on prosecutorial discretion (PD), which outlined the manner in which enforcement activity could be focused on deporting serious criminals. Since that announcement, however, official court records show that rather than increasing, the number of deportations ordered on the basis of criminal activity has continued to decrease. Evidence from the most recent quarter show that the agency continues to be headed in the opposite direction from its stated goal. See Table 1. The decline in the number of individuals charged with being deportable for criminal activity has been more rapid than the overall decline in court filings over the last two years. This means that those targeted on the basis of criminal grounds are not simply fewer in number, but they also make up a declining proportion of all Immigration Court cases. Quarterly trends over the past four years are shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Deportation Orders Sought in Immigration Court by Type of Criminal Activity The colored bars in Figure 2 divide alleged criminal activity into two types. The proportion ICE claims are deportable as convicted "aggravated felons" are indicated by the lower red bars, while the upper brown bars represent the proportion alleged to have engaged in other criminal activity. A downward trend can be seen for both types, in absolute numbers and also when considered as a percentage of all deportation proceedings (see supporting data for Figure 2). All of the above results are based upon analyses by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University of case-by-case records covering all proceedings filed in the Immigration Courts. These records were obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is the part of the Department of Justice which administers the nation's special administrative court system charged with deciding whether noncitizens should be deported or are legally entitled to remain in the country[2]. See also TRAC's previous report tracking the basis for deportation proceedings for the decade before 9/11 with the decade after 9/11, and contrasting Bush and Obama administration records. Targeting Trends by Nationality Table 2. Deportation Orders Sought in Immigration Court Based on Alleged Criminal Activity by Nationality Nationality FY 2011 FY 2012* All Nationalities 15.3% 14.4% Mexico 15.4% 14.8% Guatemala 5.5% 4.3% El Salvador 10.2% 8.4% Honduras 7.7% 7.6% China 1.6% 1.2% * Through first six months of FY 2012 A reduced focus on criminal activity as a basis for seeking deportation orders was also revealed when the data corresponding to individual nationality groups was examined. In the most recent quarter, just five countries — Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and China — accounted for nearly four out of five (79 percent) of all new cases in Immigration Court. Of these, in FY 2011 Mexico had the highest proportion of those ICE sought to deport on criminal grounds (15.4 percent) and China the lowest (1.6 percent). In both cases, ICE cited criminal grounds less frequently during the first six months of FY 2012: for Mexico it declined to from 15.4 to 14.8 percent; for China it fell from 1.6 to 1.2 percent. See Table 2 and Figure 3. Figure 3. Decline in the Proportion of Deportation Orders Sought in Immigration Court Based on Alleged Criminal Activity In FY 2011, the rates at which individuals from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala were charged with being deportable for criminal activity — 10.2, 7.7 and 5.5 percent, respectively — were intermediate between those for Mexico and China. But again, for all three countries ICE sought fewer deportations of individuals charged with engaging in criminal activity during the first six months of FY 2012. Specific details and trends for all nationalities (including these five) are available using TRAC's Immigration Court deportation proceedings tool which has been updated with data through March of 2012. In addition to these overall trends, the deportation proceedings tool also allows the details for each nationality to be examined by Immigration Court and hearing location. [1] References to criminal activity are for only those deportation order requests in which ICE cites such activity as at least one of its bases. ICE may choose to use other grounds in seeking the deporting of individuals with criminal convictions, but the number cannot be determined due to ICE's withholding of data on deportation orders. [2] We used the term "deportation" in a generic sense — whether legally labeled as removal, deportation, or expulsion based upon inadmissibility grounds.