Immigration Enforcement has discovered 111,000 immigrants in their prisons

November 13 2009 by Liam Clifford

New US program flags up immigrants that have a criminal record.

Federal authorities in the States have uncovered more than 111,000 immigrants within US prisons with criminal records, this is during the first year of a new program that aims to deport immigrants that have committed crimes of a serious nature.

Among the immigrants already flagged up by the system, known as ‘Secure Communities,’ a total of 11,000 have been charged or convicted of the more serious crimes, including rape and murder, around 1,900 of those have now been deported according to officials.

At an earlier news conference in Washington DC, John Morton, an official at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement cited the program as “the future of immigration enforcement,” as it “focuses our resources on identifying and removing the most serious criminal offenders.”

Approximately 100,000 of the immigrants identified by the new system had been sentenced for less serious crimes, this varied from traffic offences to burglary. Of that number, just over 14,000 have now been deported.

US immigration specialists remain doubtful over the new program, claiming that it lumps together minor offences with more serious crime. They also maintain it encourages the local police to suspect and arrest anyone that looks’ like an illegal immigrant.

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