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22 Jun, 2007

210 Years From Now…

Posted by: Rob Bluey In: Capitol Hill

The Department of Homeland Security is hyping a story from ABC News that the number of fugitive aliens in the United States is down for the first time since 2003 thanks to beefed up enforcement from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in the past two months. Interesting timing, huh?

The story says that about 68,000 fugitive aliens enter the country per year — amounting to more than 5,600 per month. But the real shocker is the total backlog of more than 630,000 individuals. Even though that number has dropped by 500 because of increased enforcement, at the rate ICE is moving, it’ll take 210 years to have ‘em all rounded up.

UPDATE — 5:46 p.m.: My colleague Ernest Istook shared this Reuters story with me about raids that took place in Southern California this week. The article puts the number at 632,189 immigration fugitives.

2 Responses to "210 Years From Now…"

1 | Keith Casey

June 22nd, 2007 at 4:39 pm

When I worked for DoJ/DHS back in 2003, I had an interesting discussion along these lines and was told point blank:

1) When the number of captures goes up, it demonstrates that their enforcement efforts are getting better;

2) When the number of captures goes down, it demonstrates that their deterrent efforts are getting better;

Yes, you read that right.

2 | Rob Bluey

June 22nd, 2007 at 5:47 pm

Very interesting.

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