According to government figures, ICE removed 82,802 individuals it calls “criminal aliens,” who have some sort of criminal conviction on their record while in the United States, an increase of 6.6 percent over fiscal year 2003. Deportations of other workers rose by more than 10 percent, to 74,479.

About 3 million young U.S. citizens have at least one parent in the United States without proper immigration documents, reports a February 17 New York Times article titled “Caught between Parents and the Law.” The stepped up deportation sweeps result in many of these children either being forced to leave the country, or stay behind without one of their parents.

The number of programs under which immigration cops now operate have expanded over the past couple of years. A National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP), also known as the Absconder Initiative, was launched in February 2002 under ICE’s Office of Detention and Removal.

NFOP takes aim at a list of nearly 400,000 individuals for whom unenforced deportation and removal orders have been issued. In most cases those being targeted are not even aware that such orders have been issued, according to the immigrant rights group Families for Freedom. Once detained they can be deported immediately without a hearing before an immigration judge. Currently NFOP operates 18 teams nationwide, with plans to expand to 30 teams.

ICE spokesman Manny Van Pelt in an interview with the Times described how these immigration cops conduct operations. “When agents plan a raid on the last known address,” the Times article states, “efficiency dictates that they come prepared to apprehend others with outstanding deportation orders who live nearby.” At their disposal is information from eight databases encompassing about 26 billion electronic records from a support center in Williston, Vermont.
 
 
Related articles:
Imprisoned for a year without a hearing, New Jersey unionist fights deportation
Moisés Mory writes from the Monmouth County Jail in New Jersey  
 
 
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