Immigration official says agents will no longer have quotas

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced today that he has ended quotas on a controversial program designed to go after illegal immigrants who have ignored deportation orders and that he planned to make more changes to the program soon.

John Morton, who took over as head of the federal agency in May, said during a meeting with reporters in Los Angeles that the program needs to do what it was created to do -- target absconders who have already had their day in court.

“The fugitive operations program needs to focus first and foremost on people who have knowingly flouted an immigration removal order and within that category obviously we will focus first on criminals,” he said.

Beginning in 2003, the agency dispatched teams around the country to arrest and deport immigrants with criminal records and outstanding deportation orders. During widely publicized sweeps, armed agents showed up at homes and apartment buildings and arrested tens of thousands of immigrants.

Immigrant rights groups criticized the early morning raids, saying they divided families and resulted in the arrests of many who had no criminal records or deportation orders.

A report by the Migration Policy Institute this year showed that 73% of the nearly 97,000 people arrested by those teams between 2003 and early 2008 did not have criminal records. The report also showed that in 2006, the agency stopped requiring that two-thirds of those arrested be criminals and allowed the teams to include nonfugitives in their tally.

That same year, the teams were expected to increase their annual arrests from 125 to 1,000, the report said.

Morton said Monday that there is nothing wrong with targets but that hard quotas don’t make sense.

“I just don’t think that a law enforcement program should be based on a hard number that must be met,” he said. "I just don't think that’s a good way to go about it. So we don’t have quotas anymore.”

Morton said, however, that he would continue enforcing the law against immigrants who have fought their cases and lost.

“It is important that the system have integrity,” he said. “I am not signaling in any way that we are not going to enforce the law against noncriminal fugitives.”

There are 104 fugitive operation teams, up from 8 when the program started. The immigration agency received $226 million for the program this year, up from $9 million in 2003.

-- Anna Gorman

Comments

[Ruby Jackson]

My God, what ever happened to personal responsibility? If you make a choice to do something that puts your entire family at risk, don't complain when that day comes to pay the price. Breaking up a family is the consequence of illegal activity, not the fickle finger of fate.

[Jimi]

Here comes the march to amnesty again. The Feds will declare the border secured, the interior operational and all 20+ million can sign up for citizenship and all those taxpayer goodies.
All of this will be a ruse as there is no evidence that there is any grasp of the illegal problem, it's a sweeping under the rug approach.
Once that amnesty is passed, expect another 40 million to break in waiting for the next amnesty.
And so it goes...

[Bobby]

The obvious treason and violation of existing U.S. immigration law continues. Why worry about amnesty when the border is wide open. When enough Mexican foreign nationals have entered the U.S., they will simply do whatever they want to do through being given citizenship, because that is the Democrats plan. Awarding citizenship to border criminals and thus making U.S, citizenship a joke. You see, this is the North American Union being carried out, that everyone is talking about. It's just happening quietly and with the help of Americans usuall apathy toward what their elected "representatives" are doing.

[Perry Seamans]

These groups talk as if illegal immigrants have the rite to be in our country. Illegal aliens are illegal So if the ICE police stumble upon some none-absconding illegal aliens. They should be mandated to arrest them as well.

[Paula]

This article forget or just didn't want to mention that these are illegal immigrants. Not once did they say ILLEGAL.

[Louise]

If they are here illegally, then they have broken Federal law by being here. So, I say arrest them and deport them without long lengthy court battles at taxpayers cost. They are NOT ENTITLED TO AMERICAN RIGHTS, they are breaking the law by coming here without a VISA. Also,when they have children while here, their children SHOULD NOT AUTOMATICALLY BECOME A U.S. CITIZEN.

[lucifer]

Just means now they can detain/arrest as many as they please! Ya better watch out, someone's watching you and doesn't care what family is broken up by their own stupidity.

[Dave]

Paula, actually the word 'illegal' is used in the very first paragraph.

[Santosaint]

Justice prevails! Our tax dollars will finally go to what ICE officials went to Congress and lied about...going after the real violent criminals not just the easier target, of undocumented immigrants, to fill quotas. A tip-of-the-hat to John Morton for his take on the necessity of capturing the violent criminals and to Anna Gorman for reporting on the decision.

I just bet the hate junkies are all in a tizzy over this one. Hey hate brigade, injustices will not be tolerated and the humane treatment of people will prevail because good people of good moral character outnumber the hate mongrels.

[Rodger Lemonde]

Illegal aliens are people and should not be abused.
The lack of compassion in commentary is a disgusting thing to see.
These are people who are trying to get by in life as best they know how. When the government acts a callously as reported here it points out how little some of us deserve the bounty of this land.
Note to Americans: Some of these people have more right to be here than you do. They are the descendants of native populations WE STOLE THIS CONTINENT from. So I do not feel your pain if you rail against them only a deep seated loathing.

[Ice Cream You Scream~]

Lemonade is right, illegal aliens are people too and should not be abused. America stole this land and after cleaning it, making it habitable, enforcing the laws of the land and ensuring that the citizens have rights, America should return it to the illegal aliens. For years, America allowed illegal aliens to utilize our resources, provided them health and dental care, and pay them money for staying at home and to care of their American born children. Where do you think the funds came from? Yes, you guessed it right Lemonade, from the legal tax paying citizens of this stolen land called America. Heck why not give this stolen land back to Mexico and call it North Mexico?

Fresa Vs Lemonade

[Steve]

unfortunatelly for all of the comments some are right in a way and others are too....but the clumsiest is to call it North Mexico just to let you know Mexico is also North America and will always be, A Mexican or a Salvadorean is also an American you should study your geography instead of claiming false accusations Then again Mexicans are reclaiming their land you see most of the Mexican people livimg in the eight states that were stolen from Mexico like California,Nevada,Arizona,New Mexico,Texas,Oregon,Utah,Colorado and Wyoming think about it alsi i accept comments cyber.stv@gmail.com