The Associated Press (AP) has obtained internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) documents that show deportations are down 20 percent since last year. Sadly, this news is not surprising as under President Obama deportations have fallen consistently, in 2011 hitting the lowest levels since 1973.
According to the ICE documents, from October 2013 to the end of July this year, ICE removed 258,608 unlawful immigrants. The AP reports that this is 20 percent less than the number of removals during the same period in 2013 and 25 percent less than during the same 10 months in 2012. Another type of deportation, known as returns, has also plummeted under President Obama to approximately 230,000 in 2012, the lowest rate since 1968. The total number of deportations—returns plus removals—fell from around 1.2 million in 2008 to around 650,000 in 2012, the last complete set of data that is available.
The AP story indicates that the number of deportations could drop even further this year. If returns didn’t pick up in the past two years (it is likely that they fell further) and if removals continue at the pace reported by the AP, then the U.S. could be headed for a new low of around 500,000 total deportations for FY 2014, the lowest since 1972.
Of course, these new lows will be nothing compared to the levels that will be reached when President Obama moves forward with executive amnesty. The fears of Senate Democrats running for re-election have postponed action until after the election, but the Administration is already promising executive action before the end of 2014. According to various news stories, President Obama could extend temporary administrative amnesty to around 5 million illegal immigrants.
Such an action will only encourage more illegal immigration as would-be illegal immigrants realize that the U.S. will not enforce its laws. We saw it with the 1986 amnesty; we have seen it with President Obama’s smaller Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA); and we will see it again if President Obama moves forward with his executive action on immigration.
Administrative amnesty will also shred the rule of law, making it clear that immigration laws are meaningless to this Administration. Not enforcing immigration laws against millions of people, and going around Congress to do so, sets a dangerous precedent that other laws can just be ignored—a consequence that should be of concern for Americans of all political stripes.
Congress should use its power of the purse to stop this lawless behavior and insist that the laws be faithfully enforced by the executive branch.
