U.S. boosts deportation of illegals

U.S. boosts deportation of illegals

By Jerry Seper
March 17, 2008


Illegals awaited prosecution last month in the Val Verde Correctional Facility in Del Rio, Texas. Law enforcement has implemented Operation Streamline in select regions along the U.S.-Mexico border, removing 280,523 persons in 2007, but the program needs funding, detention space and manpower.

The Department of Homeland Security, continuing to enforce what it calls a "strict policy of arresting, prosecuting and jailing" illegal immigrants, deported a record number of those caught on the nation's borders last year — more than 280,000 in fiscal year 2007 compared with 186,000 a year earlier.

It was the largest number of illegals ever removed from the country in a single year.

The increase is attributable to what veteran law-enforcement authorities said is a revised apprehension process, adding that the department no longer is targeting only criminal illegals for removal, but seeks eventually to apprehend, charge and deport all those who cross illegally into the United States.