DOJ: Immigration Apprehensions Lowest Since 1972

Newly released government records seem to indicate that the Obama Administration got to work right away on its stealth amnesty plan, drastically slashing the number of immigration apprehensions during its first two years in power.

Apprehensions for immigration violations plummeted dramatically from 1.8 million in 2000 to an all-time low of 516,992 in 2010, according to a report released this month by the Department of Justice (DOJ).  The document was created by a special division of the DOJ (Bureau of Justice Statistics) that collects and disseminates information on crime and the operation of the justice system.

Less than two years into the Obama presidency, the number of immigration violation apprehensions was at the lowest level since 1972, according the federal report. Arrests, however, tripled from 25,205 to 82,438, but this is deceiving because apprehensions are instances in which foreign nationals are caught in the U.S. illegally. Arrests refer to the booking of an individual by U.S. Marshals for violating federal immigration law.

Under this formula, if a lot less illegal immigrants are getting “apprehended” or caught in the first place, simply increasing the number of actual “arrests” is not going to cut it. For the purpose of the DOJ stats, apprehensions and arrests represent events and not actual individuals because some illegal aliens could be apprehended or arrested on multiple occasions.

Not surprisingly, the core of the apprehensions took place at or near the Mexican border with the Tucson Arizona sector leading the way in 2010 with 212,202. The others are; San Diego (68,565), Rio Grande Valley (59,766), Laredo (35,287), El Centro (32,562) and Del Rio (14,694). An overwhelming chunk of the illegal immigrants, 83%, were citizens of Mexico though an increasing number (12%) came from Central American countries.

Here are a few other interesting stats revealed in the DOJ’s report, which keep in mind, only covers up to 2010. The most common immigration offense charged in federal court in 2010 was illegal reentry (81%) with two-thirds of the defendants having a prior felony arrest and more than half a prior felony conviction. They include large numbers of drug-related and violent felonies, according to the report.

The bottom line is that this appears to be yet another tidbit supporting the Obama Administration’s backdoor amnesty plan, which has become bolder over the years. Last month the president proudly announced—at a Rose Garden press conference—a controversial plan to spare nearly 1 million young illegal immigrants from deportation, even as the administration works behind the scenes granting stealth amnesty to many more undocumented aliens.

As of the end of May, 4,585 deportation cases were closed under a special Homeland Security program—prosecutorial discretion—created last summer to conduct “an unprecedented review of all immigration cases pending in the immigration courts and incoming cases.” The number continues rising, according to ICE figures obtained by a nonpartisan data research center that studies the government.