Illegal immigration up, deportations down in 2014: DHS

Article author: 
Stephen Dinan
Article publisher: 
The Washington Times
Article date: 
19 December 2014
Article category: 
National News
Medium
Article Body: 

The number of illegal immigrants crossing the border rose in 2014, while deportations dropped, according to new statistics Homeland Security released Friday in a pre-holiday data dump that signaled potential problems on both sides of the immigration enforcement equation.

Apprehensions on the border, which Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says is a yardstick for overall illegal immigration, rose 16 percent in fiscal year 2014, while deportations from within the interior of the U.S. — the measure of how much the administration is going after long-time illegal immigrants — fell 24 percent ...

Those numbers, which cover from Oct. 1, 2013, through Sept. 30, 2014, are from before President Obama announced his new temporary amnesty on Nov. 20. That is likely to lower deportations even more ...

The official also said part of the problem is that so-called “sanctuary city” localities are increasingly refusing to turn immigrants over to federal authorities for deportation. Homeland Security said localities refused 10,182 different requests from federal agents to hold illegal immigrants the agents wanted to pick up for deportation ...