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ICE drops arrest quotas for illegal immigrants
By Anna Gorman Tribune Newspapers
August 18, 2009
The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday that he has ended quotas on a controversial program designed to target illegal immigrants who have ignored deportation orders.
John Morton, who took over as head of the federal agency in May, said during a meeting with reporters in Los Angeles that the program needs to do what it was created to do: target absconders who have had their day in court.
"The fugitive operations program needs to focus first and foremost on people who have knowingly flouted an Immigration removal order, and within that category, obviously we will focus first on criminals," he said.
Beginning in 2003, the agency dispatched teams around the United States to arrest and deport immigrants with criminal records and outstanding deportation orders. During publicized sweeps, armed agents showed up at homes and arrested tens of thousands of immigrants.
Immigrant-rights groups criticized the morning raids, saying they divided families and resulted in the arrests of many who had no criminal records or deportation orders.
A report by the Migration Policy Institute this year showed that 73 percent of the nearly 97,000 people arrested by those teams from 2003 to early 2008 did not have criminal records.
The report also showed that in 2006, the agency stopped requiring that two-thirds of those arrested be criminals and allowed the teams to include nonfugitives in their tally.
That same year, the teams were expected to increase their annual arrests from 125 to 1,000, the report said.
Morton said Monday that there was nothing wrong with targets but that hard quotas do not make sense.
"I just don't think that a law-enforcement program should be based on a hard number that must be met," he said. "I just don't think that's a good way to go about it. So we don't have quotas anymore."
Morton said he would continue enforcing the law against immigrants who have fought their cases and lost.
"It is important that the system have integrity," he said. "I am not signaling in any way that we are not going to enforce the law against noncriminal fugitives."
agorman@tribune.com
By Anna Gorman Tribune Newspapers
August 18, 2009
The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday that he has ended quotas on a controversial program designed to target illegal immigrants who have ignored deportation orders.
John Morton, who took over as head of the federal agency in May, said during a meeting with reporters in Los Angeles that the program needs to do what it was created to do: target absconders who have had their day in court.
"The fugitive operations program needs to focus first and foremost on people who have knowingly flouted an Immigration removal order, and within that category, obviously we will focus first on criminals," he said.
Beginning in 2003, the agency dispatched teams around the United States to arrest and deport immigrants with criminal records and outstanding deportation orders. During publicized sweeps, armed agents showed up at homes and arrested tens of thousands of immigrants.
Immigrant-rights groups criticized the morning raids, saying they divided families and resulted in the arrests of many who had no criminal records or deportation orders.
A report by the Migration Policy Institute this year showed that 73 percent of the nearly 97,000 people arrested by those teams from 2003 to early 2008 did not have criminal records.
The report also showed that in 2006, the agency stopped requiring that two-thirds of those arrested be criminals and allowed the teams to include nonfugitives in their tally.
That same year, the teams were expected to increase their annual arrests from 125 to 1,000, the report said.
Morton said Monday that there was nothing wrong with targets but that hard quotas do not make sense.
"I just don't think that a law-enforcement program should be based on a hard number that must be met," he said. "I just don't think that's a good way to go about it. So we don't have quotas anymore."
Morton said he would continue enforcing the law against immigrants who have fought their cases and lost.
"It is important that the system have integrity," he said. "I am not signaling in any way that we are not going to enforce the law against noncriminal fugitives."
agorman@tribune.com
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