The Fiscal Year 2012 for ICE: Removal Numbers, Key Priorities & New National Detainer Guidance
Director John
Morton of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) recently announced the FY 2012 year-end removal numbers, highlighting
the continued enforcement and removal of convicted criminals of serious
offenses from the country. Overall,
ICE’s Office of Enforcement and Removal
Operations (ERO) removed 409,849 individuals, of which ninety-six percent
(96%) fell into a priority category – a record high for the agency. Of the 409,849 total individuals removed,
225,390, approximately fifty-five percent (55%), were convicted of felonies
or misdemeanors - nearly double the amount of removals in FY 2008.
ICE also
issued new national detainer guidance, which limits the use of detainers to
individuals who meet the department’s enforcement priorities and restricts the
use of detainers against individuals arrested for minor misdemeanor
offenses. Director Morton highlighted the
need to further focus resources on the most serious criminal offenders with the
following statement;
“In order to further enhance
our ability to focus enforcement efforts on serious offenders, we are changing
who ICE will issue detainers against.
While the FY 2012 removals indicate that we continue to make progress in
focusing resources on criminal and priority aliens, with more convicted
criminals being removed from the country than ever before, we are constantly
looking for ways to ensure that we are doing everything we can to utilize our
resources in a way that maximizes public safety.”
The
implementation of this directive will include the continued use of
investigations and programs, such as Operation
Cross Check and ICE’s expanded collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to target criminal aliens and to
remove recent border crossers.
Furthermore, Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano has directed ICE to
focus its resources on key priorities in all aspects of its immigration
enforcement efforts which include; the identification and removal of those that
have broken criminal laws, threats to national security and repeat violators of
immigration law.
The article
can be read in its entirety here
and the charts on removal statistics can be viewed on ICE’s immigration
enforcement web page.
Labels: Department of Homeland Security, DHS, ICE, immigration, Immigration Customs Enforcement
posted by Form I-9 Compliance News @ 10:22 AM
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