1.

STATES DEPORT SOARING NUMBER
By Manuel Valdes

** Nearly 40% Rise **

Associated Press
July 12, 2008

http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topstories/story/410656.html

Deportations from Washington, Oregon, and Alaska have spiked by nearly 40 percent, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Friday.

Immigration officials said the number of illegal immigrants deported from those three states was 7,345 for the first nine months of the fiscal year. That number was up from 5,256 for the same period last year.

If the monthly average continues, the agency is on pace for a record-breaking year in the region, said Neil Clark, field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and removal operations in Seattle.

Officials credit the increase in part to expansion of the Criminal Alien Program, in which immigration officers hone in on illegal immigrants with criminal records and work with law enforcement to process them. Those deportations increased by 26 percent in the same period. Of the more than 7,300 deported, more than 2,000 had prior criminal convictions.

“If you think of ICE’s mission being public safety, the Criminal Alien Program really goes at the heart of that,” agency spokeswoman Lori Dankers said.

The number of immigration officers visiting jails throughout the three states has increased.

“I think the message from this is if you’re committing crime and you’re foreign born, you’re going to be found and be removed,” Clark said.

Immigration investigations and work-site raids have also helped increase deportations, Clark added.

Last month, 32 illegal immigrants were arrested at a manufacturing plant in Arlington, Snohomish County, that supplies parts for commercial and military aircraft, including some made by The Boeing Co. In 2007, 51 people were arrested at a United Parcel Service warehouse in Auburn, and more than 165 workers were detained at a Del Monte processing plant in Portland.

The latest numbers reflect the continuing crackdown on illegal immigration by ICE and other federal agencies. Nationwide, the number of deportations in the period increased from 210,000 to more than 234,000, about an 11 percent increase.

Between June 2007 and June 2008, nearly 6,000 people have been added to the Criminal Alien Program in Washington. That means ICE will monitor those who are in jail and deport them after the sentence is served. More than 4,500 people were added in Oregon.

ICE officials said they did not have the number of immigrants convicted of felonies rather than less-serious misdemeanors.

Pramila Jayapal, executive director of OneAmerica, a Seattle-based immigrant advocate group, said the increase in deportation makes her worry about the protection of due process rights.

A surge in deportations, Jayapal said, means more overcrowding and medical risks for illegal immigrants at detention centers.

“The whole thing requires a call on Congress to stop the surge of deportation until we can make sure we can protect the rights of people that are being picked up,” Jayapal said.

OneAmerica is scheduled to release a report next week that alleges human rights have been violated at the detention center in Tacoma, which serves the Northwest.

A federal immigration detention center on Tacoma’s Tideflats plans to expand by 50 percent, city officials said last week.

When completed, the Northwest Detention Center would hold up to 1,500 immigrants in federal custody. The facility opened in 2004 with the ability to hold about 500 detainees. It has since expanded twice.

The GEO Group, the Florida-based company that runs the Tacoma detention center, has yet to formally announce the expansion.

Backers of illegal immigration enforcement said the increase in deportations is a good sign, but they add that more penalties are needed for employers who hire illegal immigrants.

“Immigration authorities are out looking. That serves as discouragement for people coming here in the first place,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Nationally, Mexico remains the leading country of origin for deported illegal immigrants, followed by Honduras and Guatemala.

--The News Tribune contributed to this report.

2.

[Reader response]

BUT THERE IS MORE
By Tim Smith

Bill of Rights Defense Committee-Tacoma
July 12, 2008

1. The facility on the Tideflats is NOT a federal facility. It is a PRIVATE Facility owned by a FOR-PROFIT Company that leases space to the Federal Government.

2. The facility has expanded five times since it opened, not two times.

3. One fifth of those detained are released because they are allowed to be here and never should have been detained in the first place.

4. Persons deported come not just from the three states listed but from anywhere in the United States. If centers in San Diego are full, for example, they would be sent to Tacoma if the company has bedspace.

5. Those persons released are NOT flown back to where they were picked up but released right here in Tacoma. That's 200 immigrants on average per month.

6. The facility also houses Level-3 felons (average number around 200). These are the immigrants from the Ciminal Alien program and have committed murder, sold drugs, raped, or otherwise committed serious State or Federal crimes. None of the sex offenders that live there have ever been registered to live in Pierce County. Some have been there for the entire time the facility has been open and will probably never be deported because their countries won't take them back.