Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the Obama administration’s statistics on the deportation of illegal immigrants are “smoke and mirrors,” claiming he sees the same criminals entering his jails “six, seven, eight times” and speculating that “they’re being let out the back door.”

The Maricopa County sheriff spoke with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on Friday about the Obama administration’s claim that they’ve deported 2 million illegal immigrants. Arpaio contended that the White House is “play[ing] around with statistics.”

“I always had a feeling that a lot of these people that we put on hold — turn over to ICE — really were not being deported,” he said. “I did a survey in the last three months and found out that of the over 1,200 illegal aliens in our jails, one-third, or about 400, that were released in the past have criminal records.”

“And they’re still being booked back into the jail!” he continued. “Six, seven, eight times. Keep coming back! How come they’re not being deported? That’s where they should be, they’re high-level violators.”

“They’re rounded up, they’re booked into my jails for criminal violations, we put holds on them, they’re turned over to ICE,” he explained. “And how come they keep coming back in the last several years? They should be back where they came from, or they’re being let out the back door! You can’t have it both ways. How come they keep coming back to jail?”

‘If you’re talking about the interior of the United States which is enforced by ICE, when you take the 11 million allegedly here, ICE has locked up one percent when you look at the figures,” he declared. “So it’s smoke and mirrors going on, that has been going on.”

Last week, the head of the Department of Homeland Security admitted to Congress that a large proportion of the so-called “deportations” counted by the White House are in fact “turn-backs” at the border. No prior administration has included theses figures in their deportation statistics.

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