By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
East Valley Tribune
August 3, 2010
The Obama administration is deporting more illegal immigrants than even before, undermining blasts by Republicans, including Gov. Jan Brewer, that it is failing in its duty to deal with the problem.
Statistics put together by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University show that more illegal immigrants were removed from the United States during the first nine months of this fiscal year than during the same period in 2008. That is when Republican George W. Bush was in the White House and his administration controlled Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In fact, the number of those ejected from the country between Oct. 1, 2009 and June 30 of this year is nearly twice as much as it was in the same period ending June 30, 2005.
The TRAC report also shows that the Obama administration is devoting more of its resources to removing those who have committed serious crimes.
During the first nine months of the fiscal year, TRAC, using Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, figures that 136,714 "criminal aliens'' were deported. That same figure in 2008 was 85,334.
That was counterbalanced by a decrease in removals of non-criminal aliens. The figure for the first nine months of this fiscal year is 142,321, compared to 169,429 at the same time in 2008.
The report comes in the middle of an ongoing barrage of criticism at the president and homeland security chief Janet Napolitano by many Republicans. And integral to that has been Arizona's approval of a tough new law aimed giving police more power to detain immigrants -- though much of that has been stayed by a federal judge -- based on claims that the state needs to act because the federal government is not.
Brewer has been at the forefront of those blasts.
Earlier this year, for example, the governor said Obama and his administration have "simply turned a blind eye to the issues that Arizona is being overrun by illegal immigration, terrorizing the citizens.''
More recently, Brewer chided Obama for assigning just 1,200 National Guard soldiers to the entire Mexican border, with 524 of them coming to Arizona.
And just Tuesday, her gubernatorial campaign said the president "has failed to secure the border and instead has opted to sue the state of Arizona for doing the job the feds won t do.''
Brewer's criticism of the Obama administration has been egged on by others. That includes former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin who said just days ago, "if our own president will not enforce our federal law, more power to Jan Brewer.''
Gubernatorial press aide Paul Senseman said he hasn't reviewed the TRAC report. But he said Brewer stands by her criticism.
"Even the president himself has said that the federal government has failed to secure our borders,'' Senseman said.
"Both Republican and Democratic elected officials in Arizona have described the situation as a 'crisis' '' he continued. "There is bipartisan consensus that the federal government has failed to secure our border.''
But Senseman said that doesn't mean Brewer is letting Bush off the hook.
"The governor has never stated that the failure to secure the border is limited to this administration,'' he said. Senseman said the problems Arizona face are the result of the "accumulated impacts of the years of federal neglect.''
He said that is borne out in part by the fact that about 6,000 inmates in Arizona prisons are illegal immigrants out of about 40,000 now incarcerated there.
"The annual costs to house these criminals is now roughly $150 million,'' Senseman said. "But the accumulated costs since 2003 now stand at roughly $750 million in costs to state taxpayers.''
None of that, he said, excuses for Brewer what is -- or is not -- happening now.
"She has repeatedly expressed her frustration that this Congress and this President have failed to implement a substantial and dramatic surge in border security,'' he said.
Arizona's two U.S. senators, both Republicans, also have joined in the criticism.
John McCain said it was the failure of the Obama administration to "secure our borders'' that forced Arizona to enact SB 1070 in the first place. And Jon Kyl said that Obama told him he wouldn't secure the border because that would take all the wind out of his own plans for comprehensive immigration reform, a claim the White House disputed.
Neither McCain nor Kyl would comment about the TRAC report.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/immigration/article_0e089da2-9f60-11df-a1f3-001cc4c03286.html
