Report: Deportations Doubled In Midwest

Since 2004, More Than 11,000 Illegal Immigrants Sent Away, Mirroring National Trend

(AP)  Just after dawn, shackled illegal immigrants lined up on an isolated tarmac at O'Hare International Airport before boarding a federal jet bound for the U.S.-Mexico border.

Among them was 24-year-old construction worker Gerardo Lopez Arellano, one of nearly 11,200 illegal immigrants deported this year through Chicago, the location of a field office for a six-state region for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The number of people deported each year in the region that includes Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin has nearly doubled since 2004, according to numbers released Thursday by ICE. About 6,600 people were deported through the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2004.

Deportations have also increased nationwide. Nearly 350,000 immigrants were deported in the U.S. through Sept. 30, 2008, compared with about 174,000 in the same period in 2004.

The trend is expected to continue. But experts and immigration officials aren't certain whether deportations - which affect less than 3 percent of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. this year - are an effective means of controlling illegal immigration.

It wasn't a factor for Arellano, a construction worker in suburban Chicago and Wisconsin who was deported twice before this year.

"I'll probably be back," he told The Associated Press hours before taking off in the white 737 jet.

Since its creation in 2003, ICE has touted its enforcement of immigration laws and the aggressive tactics agents use. For example, the agency has arrested tens of thousands in its Fugitive Operations Program, which dismantles transnational gangs.

The agency also has more resources than years past. Its budget was $5.58 billion this fiscal year, up from $3.56 billion in 2005, according to ICE's Web site.

In Chicago, federal officials have recently increased the frequency of Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, or JPATS, flights leaving Chicago to twice from once a week.

"We made a commitment to the American people to embark on an ambitious enforcement strategy aimed at securing our borders and strengthening our nation's immigration system," Julie Myers, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE, said in a statement.

But in an interview earlier this year with The Associated Press, she said it's unclear if deportations are an effective means of stopping people from coming into the country illegally.

"It's too early to take a comprehensive view," Myers said. "We'll have to look a few years from now."

The majority of deported illegal immigrants in the six-state Midwest area are from Mexico. More than half, about 6,800, have not been accused of crimes.

Arellano, an admitted gang member, has a criminal record. He was charged with battery in 2006 and convicted of armed robbery last year, factors which will likely keep him from getting U.S. citizenship.

"When someone is deported ... we tell them the consequences," said Sylvia Manno with ICE's field operations in Chicago. "If they chose to come back, it's a choice they are making."

The number of deportations has increased in part due to the failure of new comprehensive immigration reform, according to James Ziglar, a fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and former Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner.

"If people want to come, there's a job, they need a job and they can't get here legally because the system doesn't accommodate a real flow of people, then they're going to come and take the chance," he said. "The risk of getting caught is a risk that they take."

Luis Armando Jimenez-Gonzalez, 20, who immigrated illegally to be with his fiancee who is a U.S. citizen, thought it was worth the risk.

"I came here to work, to have a better chance," he said.

Jimenez-Gonzalez, who also has a criminal record with a 2007 burglary conviction, worked in construction around Chicago. He was deported on the same flight as Arellano, but planned to stay with family in Mexico.

"It causes a lot of pain to come here," he said.

Some immigrant rights advocates say the increased deportation aren't effective and tear apart families who have mixed immigration status.

"Enforcement-only measures over the past decades have not worked in solving the problem of undocumented immigration in this country and will continue to be a failed policy on its own," Joshua Hoyt, the executive director of Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said Thursday.

Arellano, who grew up near the Texas border, has several siblings who are U.S. citizens. He was born while his mother visited Mexico.

"I was supposed to be born in Texas, but I came out earlier," he said. "I haven't got any family in Mexico."

On the day of their deportations, Arellano and Jimenez-Gonzalez arrived at a suburban Chicago processing center with 50 other men, were handcuffed and interviewed by the Mexican Consulate.

The mood oscillated between somber and celebratory.

The men's belongings were placed in clear plastic bags. Some were filled with clothes, cowboy boots and socks. Another was packed with Bibles.

On the bus to O'Hare and their flight home, several men spontaneously started singing a popular Mexican folk song: "Mexico lindo y querido/Si muero lejos de ti/Que digan que estoy dormido y que me traigan aqui."

The lyrics translate to, "Mexico, dear and beautiful/If I die far from you/ Let them say that I'm asleep and return me to you."

[frankinaz]

"Arellano, facing his third deportation, was one of more than 11,200 immigrants deported this year through Chicago."
Sadly, this is no surprise: The immigration laws of this country are weak, ineffective, and worse, unenforced. Many repeat offender illegal immigrant deportees keep returning to this country to commit more crimes.
Mr. Obama, PLEASE, start discouraging illegal immigration; don''t encourage it-These people already
are allowed to break too many laws, and rewarding them for doing so is WRONG. Enforce and enact new legislation to keep these people from overrunning and in some areas, overwhelming the resources of this country. Seal the borders-No more anchor babies, no driver''s licenses,
and for that matter, DEPRIVE illegal immigrants of any ways and means to stay in this country-illegally.
Hold Mexico and other countries that send people here illegally responsible for their own people for a change!

[downsteamjim]

If I come home from a long week-end and find an undocumented tenant living in my house, would I be wrong in having him leave.

[stupidrules3]

When years ago, we got a neighborhood kid to do that for us, if we couldn''''t do, want to do it , or whatever.

If the option goes away, maybe the kids will do it again.

Well,, with a little encouragement from the parents.





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Posted by slim1h2o at 05:18 PM : Nov 07, 2008

Amen, Slim.

[TrishG62]

Obama, Pelosi and Reid are in the pockets of the open border racist group, LaRaza while they call any American opposing illegal aliens, racist.
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Weeks before Barack Obama won the presidency, he met privately in Washington with his former Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and Latino political leaders who had fervently backed her bid.
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The Hispanic leaders said they expected at least two Latinos to be named to an Obama Cabinet but preferred three. Of course, they also wanted sub-Cabinet-level posts.
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In return, Obama needed assurances that Hispanics would be mobilized in large enough numbers to make him the winner in the battleground states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida.
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The president-elect has not made any firm commitments. During a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in September, he asked for their policy ideas and their votes and added, %u201CWhen I%u2019m president, I%u2019ll be asking many of you to serve at every level of government.%u201D
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Cecilia Munoz, vice president of National Council of La Raza, said, %u201CIt%u2019s a foregone conclusion that we should be at the table for policy debates and in a position of authority,%u201D because Hispanics are affected by major issues facing all voters. Latinos will be prominent in an Obama administration %u201Cjust as we would be in any administration moving forward,%u201D she added.

[indianaman13]

we have to ask ourselves what we want our Identity as Americans to be. Do we wish to be the melting pot of old? or do we wish to define what it is to be an American in a more strict way? People from West coast are much different than those of the east. Southwest has not many thing in common than the Northeast. So where is the common ground? Some people believe they have the right to bare arms, including Assault Rifles, and some see the need to own Assault Rifles as idiotic and unessecary since it seems 90% of those who want those kind of arms are criminals. What is American anymore?

[bhappy2-2]

Thats a start. Still a lot more ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS to get rid of. Maybe Obama can do something about it. Oh, wait. He wants to give them all drivers licenses and AMNESTY! Not gonna be much help to Americans, only to ILLEGAL ALIEN INVADERS.

[ffoulkes-2009]

That''''s really not what we are finding dealing with college students. The "Millennium-generation" is not willing to do physical labor at any price. They have been programed to see getting their hands dirty as beneath them. The other problem is that someone has to pay those higher wages and that means the price of food, housing, and everything else has to increase. You can pay an illegal immigrant $50 to mow your yard or you can pay a legal citizen $100 to do the same job. Which do you choose?

Posted by oldpilot954 at 04:02 PM : Nov 07, 2008
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Neither...I pay my neighbor 20 bucks and pay the gas.

[standlee5]

11,000 deported only 19,979,000 to go.

[hennighg]

The sad things is that the immigration thing was a diversion in the 2006 mid-term elections. The war was the main concern at the time and, of course, the conservatives were going to take a big hit. So, they looked around to find something to make an issue of. They blew it. The Hispanic vote, which had gone to Bush in 2004, went to Mr. Obama. Ha ha. Even the red-state farmers in the Carolinas have said that they want their Mexicans back. Big disaster for the neo-cons. Leave them alone. They''ve been part of the underground economy since the 1800s.

[slim1h2o]

That''''s really not what we are finding dealing with college students. The "Millennium-generation" is not willing to do physical labor at any price. They have been programed to see getting their hands dirty as beneath them. The other problem is that someone has to pay those higher wages and that means the price of food, housing, and everything else has to increase. You can pay an illegal immigrant $50 to mow your yard or you can pay a legal citizen $100 to do the same job. Which do you choose?

Posted by oldpilot954 at 04:02 PM : Nov 07, 2008

You may have a point about the younger generation, but since when did it become fashionable to hire illegals to mow your yard.

When years ago, we got a neighborhood kid to do that for us, if we couldn''t do, want to do it , or whatever.

If the option goes away, maybe the kids will do it again.

Well,, with a little encouragement from the parents.