Tuesday, August 18, 2009

ICE Drops Quotas in Fugitive Operations

The Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that the agency's "fugitive operations" will not set "quotas" in its apprehensions. The program, which grew since 2003 with eight teams and $9 Million budget to 104 teams with $225 million, was intended to track down criminals and those who defied a deportation order. With Bush administration's stept-up enforcement, pressure was put on teams to make more arrests. In some regions that pressure led supervisors to set "quotas" and the arrests skyrocketed. According to a study of the Migration Policy Institute, 73% of those apprehended had no criminal records. Agents who enter a house or apartment in search of an individual would leave with whomever they suspected of being undocumented. The suspicion was that the agents were under orders to meet the quotas. (See Los Angeles Times article.)

No comments: