For the past couple of days, there have been a flurry of news reports as well as emails on the local Immigration Attorney listserve about the record number of aliens who have been removed ("deported") from the United States under the Obama administration, almost 400,000. This is a record high under any administration. Interesting because the perception is that Democrats are looser on immigration than Republicans. The Administration has pointed out that the bulk of these removed aliens were criminal offenders who were convicted of everything from homicide to DUI, but it seems that the majority was convicted of drug related offenses, which could theoretically have been simple possession of over 30 g of marijuana. It would be interesting although probably not feasible to have the government break down its statistics even further for example, stating how many of the removed aliens were here without any lawful immigration status. Many people do not realize that having a "Green Card" does not avoid you from being placed in removal proceedings if you have committed certain criminal offenses. So, of this number of removed aliens, it would havebeen interesting to know how many of them were here in some sort of lawful immigration status, whether it was lawful permanent resident status ("Green Card"), student status, visitor status, or any type of employment based visa. Another helpful statistic would have been to find out how many of these removed aliens had committed crimes considered to be aggravated felonies under Immigration and Nationality Act Section 101(a)(43) for example going back to the example of drug related offenses. This is so vague. How many were actual drug traffickers? What kind of controlled substances were involved? You have to remember even though the State of California does not criminalize the medical use of marijuana under Health and Safety Code Section 11362.5, if you are for example convicted of the offense of cultivating, harvesting or processing Marijuana under Health and Safety Code Section 11358, you would likely be removed from the United States since it is considered a particularly serious drug trafficking crime under Ninth Circuit precedent.
Critics from both sides, from pro immigrant advocacy groups to Republicans have decried these results as either too heavy handed or not enough. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said it best when she said:
"Our policies have been simultaneously described as engaging in a mean-spirited effort to blindly deport record numbers of illegal immigrants from the country and alternatively as comprehensive amnesty that ignores our responsibility to enforce the immigration laws; two opposites can't simultaneously be true," she said.
