ICE forced to meet arrest quotas?

A Maryland-based immigrants rights group has accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of being forced to meet arrest quotas.

CASA de Maryland released what they claimed to be an internal ICE report on a 2007 raid in Baltimore. The study found that two dozen Latinos were arrested by ICE agents who were instructed to meet their annual quota of 1000 arrests per team. "I don't care where you get more arrests, we need more numbers," said the agents’ supervisor according to the internal investigation.

"We need just and humane immigration reform," said the executive director of CASA at a press conference on Wednesday who also called for an immediate halt to immigration raids. An ICE spokesman denied that arrest quotas were used and claimed that ICE uses “goals to measure the effectiveness of its teams.”

The Migration Policy Institute released a study earlier this month claiming that nearly three in four immigrants detained by ICE were nonviolent offenders.

Image- WTOP.com (“Justin Cox, a lawyer with CASA de Maryland, shows a surveillance video of an ICE raid that occurred in Baltimore in 2007, during a media event in Langley Park, Md. on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin).”)
Online Sources- washingtonpost.com, AP, Baltimore Sun, The Latin Americanist, WJLA

Report: ICE raids target nonviolent offenders

A report released on Wednesday by the Migration Policy Institute concluded that nearly three in four immigrants detained by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents were nonviolent offenders.

The study found that in 2004 teams on ICE’s National Fugitive Operations Program were given a quota of nabbing 125 fugitives; yet two years later the quota skyrocketed to 1000. According to the report, this led to the increased use of raids even if those detained lacked criminal antecedents (aside from being undocumented). Some of those detained didn't even have deportation orders against them.

An ICE spokesman tried to downplay the report:

"This report seems to suggest that law enforcement should not arrest any immigration fugitive who does not have a prior criminal conviction, even though they have ignored a judge's order to leave the country," said Ivan Ortiz-Delgado, an agency spokesman. "We disagree."

Despite his best efforts, Ortiz-Delgado’s spinning of the story is off the mark. The report really suggests that ICE’s job to catch “dangerous” criminals is not working well. Immigration officials claimed that the program needed so much funding in order to nab potential terrorists. Yet the results of the program contradict such claims. Why should millions in taxpayer dollars be wasted on such an inefficient program instead of being used for meaningful, fair immigration reform?

In short, who is ICE trying to fool?

Image- ABC News
Online Sources- AP, Star-Telegram.com, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, New York Times