Local deportations up 37%

om Ohio and Michigan, a 37 percent increase over last year.

The jump in deportations mirrors a national trend toward annual increases since at least 2003, when U.S. immigration enforcement was overhauled in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Nationwide, deportations are up about 34 percent since last year, climbing from 204,000 to 273,000.
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Immigration officials say the increase is the result of greater emphasis on enforcement, the creation of special teams to pursue fugitives, bigger detention facilities and speedier legal proceedings.

“Primarily, it’s because of enforcement efforts,” said Greg Palmore, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Detroit, the regional office that covers Ohio and Michigan. “We’re getting better at our job.”

They also are getting more resources to do the job.

The agency has added 75 fugitive operation teams during the past two years to bolster its ability to track down and arrest fugitive aliens who have remained in this country despite court orders to leave.

One team operates in Ohio and, along with two teams in Michigan, arrested 1,816 fugitive aliens and other immigration violators during the past year. All of the figures are based on a fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

The tougher enforcement and higher deportation numbers have prompted some criticism of the agency, especially among those who say officials focus too much on workers and not enough on criminal aliens.

But Palmore said the fugitive operation teams target aliens who are most likely to pose a threat. He said many of those arrested are felons wanted for offenses far more serious than ignoring a court order to leave the country.

He said Honduran native Osman Alvarez was recently arrested in Columbus on charges of felonious assault. He’s suspected of being a gang member and is accused of stabbing someone.

The fugitive teams in Ohio and Michigan arrested 159 aliens with criminal convictions last year, Palmore said.

“There are some individuals who are significant threats to public safety,” he said.

Jason Riveiro, spokesman for the League of United Latina American Citizens, said he has no problem with immigration officials pursuing criminal aliens. But he still worries about the impact of tougher enforcement on the families of illegal immigrants who came to this country to work.

“The federal government has the right to protect its borders,” Riveiro said. “But at the same time we have to be mindful of the people who are being caught up in it … I’m more concerned about the families involved, the families that are split apart.”

Riveiro’s group was one of several that raised concerns in August when immigration agents raided the Koch Foods poultry processing facility in Fairfield.
That raid resulted in 161 arrests and criminal charges of identity theft or forgery against more than 20 people. Palmore said all of the illegal aliens arrested in that raid have been deported.