Sunday, January 3, 2016

A couple of weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security released its 2015 report on immigration enforcement statistics. The overall removal numbers declined from previous years. The declines over the Obama years is shown in the table below. The report explains that the decline in no small part is due to an increased focus on serious dangers to the public safety, as represented by the elimination of the overbroad Secure Communities in 2014 and its replacement with the more focused Priority Enforcement Program.

The Removals Overview in the report offers the highlights of the data:

ICE conducted 235,413 removals.

ICE conducted 69,478 removals of individuals apprehended by ICE officers (i.e., interior removals).

63,539 (91%) of all interior removals were previously convicted of a crime.

ICE conducted 165,935 removals of individuals apprehended at or near the border or ports of entry.

59% of all ICE removals, or 139,368, were previously convicted of a crime.

ICE conducted 63,539 interior criminal removals.

ICE removed 75,829 criminals apprehended at or near the border or ports of entry.

98 percent of all ICE FY 2015 removals, or 230,715, met one or more of ICE’s stated civil immigration enforcement priorities.

Of the 96,045 individuals removed who had no criminal conviction, 94 percent, or 90,106, were apprehended at or near the border or ports of entry.

The leading countries of origin for removals were Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

1,040 individuals removed by ICE were classified as suspected or confirmed gang members.

Diving a bit deeper in the data, we see that Latino noncitizens constitute the overwhelming percentage of the persons who were removed in 2015. As examined in this article , this has been the case for a number of years. The statistics are entirely consistent with an immigration removal system that targets noncitizens who come into contact with state and local law enforcement authorities, which in turn target Latino males in criminal law enforcement efforts. In essence, the reliance of immigration enforcement on the criminal justice system has been responsible for the mass removal of Latinos living in the United States, most significantly low income Latinos from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

ICE explains the data on Removed Population by Citizenship:

In FY 2015, ICE removed individuals to 181 countries, the top 10 of which are provided in Table 3. Mexico continued to be the leading country of origin for those removed, followed by Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. As a percentage of total removals, Mexican removals increased from 56 percent in FY 2014 to 62 percent in FY 2015. El Salvadoran removals remained constant at 9 percent of total removals. Guatemalan removals decreased to 14 percent in FY 2015 from 17 percent in FY 2014, and Honduran removals decreased to 9 percent from 13 percent. Table 3: FY 2015 Top 10 Countries of Removal by Citizenship Citizenship Total Mexico 146,132 Guatemala 33,249 El Salvador 21,920 Honduras 20,309 Dominican Republic 1,946 Ecuador 1,305 Colombia 1,154 Nicaragua 867 Brazil 744 Jamaica 738 Other 7,049 Total 235,413

In percentages, removals of persons from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras constituted more than 94% of all removals. The number increases to over 96% if one adds the next four countries on the list (Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Colombia, Nicaragua). Needless to say, the legal and unauthorized immigrant populations in the United States do not have nearly that high a percentage of Latinos.

Little attention has been paid to the racially disproportionate impacts of the criminal justice system combined with the contemporary immigration enforcement focus of the federal government on “criminal aliens.” Nonetheless, as the latest DHS data suggests. examination of the interaction of the two systems demonstrates that the reliance on the federal, state, and local criminal justice systems in immigration enforcement has glaring racial impacts. The overwhelming number of noncitizens currently deported from the United States are from Mexico and Central America. The racially-suspect criminal justice system effectively constitutes a Latina/o pipeline into removals, which is often considered to be nothing more than color-blind enforcement of the immigration laws and adherence to the “rule of law.”

Increasing state and local involvement in federal immigration removals has come at a time of considerable public support for immigration enforcement and a general discomfort with the changes brought about by a growing Latina/o population. A palpable dose of anti-immigrant and anti-Latina/o sentiment influences public opinion and helps buttress support for immigration enforcement. Consequently, as exemplified by the support of Donald Trump's endorsement of mass removals, removal efforts that have had dramatic impacts on Latina/os thus have generally been popular with the public. Responding to such concerns, state and local governments have played increasingly more significant roles in modern immigration enforcement efforts. Indeed, some states, most notably Arizona but also Georgia, South Carolina, and others, have enacted laws that affirmatively require local police to assist federal immigration enforcement. Latina/os predominantly have suffered from the enforcement of those laws.

Relatively minor reforms to the U.S. immigration laws could begin to reduce the racial impacts of the reliance on the criminal justice system for removals. Some possible changes to the law include legislation narrowing the criminal removal provisions of the immigration laws and limiting the use of immigration detention as an enforcement tool. Broader changes, such as an outright ban on racial profiling in criminal and immigration enforcement, a return to the historical separation of criminal and immigration enforcement, and reforms that allow for more liberal and realistic immigrant admissions criteria, would go far to reduce the disparate impacts on Latina/os of modern immigration enforcement.

KJ

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2016/01/a-couple-of-weeks-ago-the-department-of-homeland-security-released-its-2015-immigration-enforcement-statistics.html