TRAC: ICE seeks to deport the wrong people

According to a new analysis of government data by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), Immigration Court judges are rejecting a large and growing number of cases where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sought to deport people from the United States. During the last three months of fiscal year (FY) 2010, the rejection rate was nearly one out of three (31 percent)—up from one out of every four (25 percent) just 12 months earlier. Courts in some parts of the country are now rejecting more than half of ICE’s requests.

This basic finding has emerged from the case-by-case information obtained by TRAC from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) under the Freedom of Information Act. But because of the refusal of ICE to provide TRAC with much more detailed information available in its computers, a complete understanding of why the judges are turning down so many ICE removal efforts is not now possible.

TRAC’s analysis found the number of people affected in the deportation matters that the courts have rejected is extensive—more than a quarter of a million individuals in just the last five years.

To view the full report, visit: http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/243.

TRAC is a data gathering, data research and data distribution organization at Syracuse University. The purpose of TRAC is to provide the American people—and institutions of oversight such as Congress, news organizations, public interest groups, businesses, scholars and lawyers—with comprehensive information about staffing, spending and enforcement activities of the federal government.