The Obama Administration swears that their deportation program has only captured criminals and sent them back to their home countries. Recently acquired data shows that to be false. Now we’re learning that not only non-criminals have been caught up in the immigration net. So have American citizens: In a spate of recent cases across the [...]

According to new data from the Transitional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, fewer immigrants deported by the Obama Administration in Fiscal Year 2011 had criminal charges then the deportees in 2010. So just as the Administration was ensuring the immigrant rights community that they were focusing their attentions on criminals (often, “violent criminals”), less [...]

The deportation reviews announced by the Obama Administration back in August have not happened yet. Two months later, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano claims that they will begin shortly. The Obama administration soon will begin its systematic review of the approximately 300,000 pending deportation cases, separating “high priority” cases involving criminals it wants to deport [...]

The news that the Obama Administration deported 400,000 undocumented immigrants in the last fiscal year, setting another record, did not come as welcome news to immigration advocates: The Obama administration might be touting the nearly 400,000 deportations of illegal immigrants last year as evidence that the White House is tough on enforcement and dedicated to [...]

Today the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) announced a roundup over the last week of nearly 3,000 alleged criminal immigrants from across the country.  The action follows a recent order from the Department of Homeland Security to focus only on serious criminals in their deportation efforts. Last month Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced [...]

Before the Administration enacted their deportation review, I wrote about the series of protests at Secure Communities task force hearings, where Latino activists denounced the program that has resulted in mass deportations of undocumented immigrants despite assurances that only violent criminals would be swept up. The activists called on the task force members to resign, [...]

Adam Serwer writes about a new report on DHS’ Secure Communities program, showing that it harms law enforcement efforts: The law enforcement argument against Secure Communities goes something like this: Because the program is automatic, undocumented immigrants are discouraged from talking to police because of the possibility that they might end up getting deported. “When [...]

Hundreds of immigrants rights advocates in Los Angeles staged a walkout during a federal task force field hearing about the Secure Communities program, blamed for the deportations of tens of thousands of non-citizens living peacefully in America. Activists implored the members of the task force to resign their post, and recommend that the Obama Administration [...]

This story from the NYT suggests that the White House responded favorably to a request from Senate Democrats to stop the deportations of DREAM-eligible students and focus ICE resources on other undocumented immigrants. Olga Zanella, a Mexican-born college student in Texas, should have started months ago trying to figure out how she could make a [...]

A coalition of grassroots immigrant rights groups held a press event in Washington today to criticize the Obama Administration for escalating immigrant deportations and call for an immediate end to all of them until the government enacts comprehensive immigration reform. Angelica Salas, the executive director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, [...]