Deportations from Washington, Oregon and Alaska have spiked by nearly 40 percent, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Friday.

Immigration officials said the number of illegal aliens deported from those three states was 7,345 for the first nine months of the fiscal year. That number was up from 5,256 for the same period last year.

If the monthly average continues, the agency is on pace for a record-breaking year in the region, said Neil Clark, field office director for ICE detention and removal operations in Seattle.

Officials credit the increase in part to expansion of the Criminal Alien Program, in which immigration officers hone in on illegal aliens with criminal records and work with local law enforcement to process them. Those deportations increased by 26 percent in the same period. Of the more than 7,300 deported, more than 2,000 had prior criminal convictions.

“If you think of ICE’s mission being public safety, the Criminal Alien Program really goes at the heart of that,” agency spokeswoman Lori Dankers said.

Kudos to immigration officials for stepping up the pace to remove criminals from our country! But…how effective are these deportations given that our borders remain porous?

Tags: illegal immigrants; crime, Immigration

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 13th, 2008 at 9:59 am and is filed under Immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.