According to the recently issued Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) Annual Report, almost 400,000 persons were deported from the United States in 2011. Additionally, another 324,000 were “returned” which simply means they were deported without an “order of removal”. So, all totaled over 700,000 persons were sent back to their countries of origin.
Caribbean nationals represented only a small percentage of the removals, returns and inadmissible persons, however four countries in Latin America comprised 93% of all deportations: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Mexico was the lion share of the deportations at 76%.
As Election Day approaches, immigration is going to be a key issue for President Obama and Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. Latinos are being disproportionately impacted by deportations and immigration laws. Latinos and immigration rights groups can (and will) exercise their collective voting power at the polls and also to influence White House policy on immigration.
These groups have already proven to be key influencers on immigration reform. This was evidenced by President Obama’s recently issued Executive Order. The Order, formally called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, went into effect almost a month ago and temporarily suspends deportations for almost two million undocumented youth who arrived in the United States as children with their parents. Thus far, however, according to the New York Times, Homeland Security has not reported any approved applications or deferred deportations.
Read the full report here: Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) Annual Report,
