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Washington (CNN) --
Nearly 400,000 people were deported from
the United States in the past fiscal
year, the largest number in the history
of the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agency, the government
announced Tuesday.
The year-end removal numbers
"underscore the administration's
focus on removing individuals ... that
fall into priority areas" such as
lawbreakers, threats to national
security and repeat violators, the
agency said in a news release.
Overall in fiscal year 2011,
immigration officials said, 396,906
individuals were removed. Of these,
216,698, nearly 55%, had been convicted
of felonies or misdemeanors. That's an
89 percent increase of criminals from
three years ago, the enforcement agency
said.
"This includes 1,119 aliens
convicted of homicide; 5,848 aliens
convicted of sexual offenses; 44,653
aliens convicted of drug related crimes;
and 35,927 aliens convicted of driving
under the influence," it said.
The percentage was even higher for
some regions. In the sector that covers
Houston, Beaumont and Corpus Christi,
Texas, about 74% of the 20,450 removals
were of people with criminal records,
said Gregory Palmore of the agency's
Houston office.
"Smart and effective immigration
enforcement relies on setting priorities
for removal and executing on those
priorities," said agency Director
John Morton. "These year-end totals
indicate that we are making progress,
with more convicted criminals, recent
border crossers, egregious immigration
law violators and immigration fugitives
being removed from the country than ever
before. Though we still have work to do,
this progress is a testament to the hard
work and dedication of thousands of ICE
agents, officers and attorneys around
the country."
The government said 90% of the
agency's removals fell into a priority
category and more than two-thirds of the
other removals in 2011 were either
recent border crossers or repeat
immigration violators.
The American Civil Liberties Union
reacted to the announcement by again
criticizing the Obama administration's
emphasis on deportations.
"All told, this administration
has deported nearly 1.2 million people,
leaving a wake of devastation in Latino
communities across the nation,"
Joanne Lin, ACLU legislative counsel,
said in a news release. "These
record-breaking deportation numbers come
at a time when illegal immigration rates
have plummeted, the undocumented
population has decreased substantially
and violent crime rates are at their
lowest levels in 40 years."
Lin also said the deportations
represent "uncontrolled,
unwarranted" spending of taxpayers'
money by the Department of Homeland
Security, of which the immigration
agency is a part.
The department's chief, Secretary
Janet Napolitano, last week defended the
administration's polices as she gave
advance notice that this fiscal year
would end with a record number of
removals.
"What ... critics will ignore is
that while the overall number of
individuals removed will exceed prior
years, the composition of that number
will have fundamentally changed,"
she said in a speech at American
University.
The Department of Homeland Security
more than a month ago announced that the
government would review about 300,000
deportation cases pending in federal
immigration courts. Lower-priority cases
-- those not involving individuals
considered violent or otherwise
dangerous -- would be suspended under
the new criteria.
That change drew criticism from the
other side of the immigration issue,
with some people who favor more
deportations characterizing it as a
back-door amnesty program aimed at
skirting the nation's immigration laws.
Napolitano said the approach is a
common-sense way to tackle immigration
problems with limited resources.
"There has never been, nor will
there be in these tight fiscal times,
sufficient resources to remove all of
those unlawfully in the country,"
she said last week. "That is why it
is so important to set clear
priorities."
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