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Report: Obama’s Deportation Policy Ignores Most Illegal Immigrants

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Jonah Bennett Contributor
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President Barack Obama’s immigration policy has left most illegal immigrants with clean records untouched, only focusing on illegals with criminal records and repeat border violators, a new study shows.

The study, conducted by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), found that around 95 percent of those deported met the national security requirements Obama stipulated, while only 5 percent, or 77,000, illegal immigrants were deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with no criminal record. MPI tracked the data from 2009 to 2013.

Although President Obama has stated that he will refine deportation procedures later this year, the report states that unless he modifies priorities, there will be no significant increase in deportation. Instead of worksite and random enforcement, the Obama administration has shifted significantly from the previous Bush administration, meaning that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) focuses mostly on the border, rather than interior areas. This is to ensure that deportation is more “human,” and for Obama, border enforcement helps to eliminate the climate of fear among already established illegals in the country.

Researchers argued that attempts to render deportation more human and reduce fear have actually lead to increased illegal immigration.

“In effect, the Obama administration has shifted from a more generalized model of enforcement to a model focused almost exclusively on illegal border crossers, obstructionists, and criminals…These policies allow for the exercise of discretion to not deport most people who fall outside these parameters,” the report noted.

Even with priority illegals, however, a recent study from the Center for Immigration Studies showed that in fiscal year 2014, ICE predicted that it would deport only 312,000 immigrants, a sharp drop of 25 percent from the amount ICE said it had funding to deport. In fiscal year 2014, ICE released 442,000 of 585,000 illegals it encountered, amounting to a stunning 75 percent release rate. No attempt was made by the agency to deport them.

ICE shot back, saying that some deportations cost more than others.

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