S.D. Led in Criminal Deportations

U.S. immigration authorities deported 16,841 illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes during the last fiscal year, according to statistics released Wednesday by INS officials, who said an intensified crackdown resulted in a 25% increase in deportations of “criminal aliens.”

INS agents in San Diego led the nation with 4,673 deportations of criminals, followed by Phoenix with 2,745 and Los Angeles with 1,592. The majority of the deportations--12,657--were to Mexico, followed by 664 criminal illegal immigrants returned to Columbia and 648 to El Salvador.

During the same fiscal year, the Border Patrol made 1,068,822 non-criminal apprehensions of illegal immigrants who chose to leave the U.S. voluntarily without facing deportation hearings, officials said.

INS Commissioner Gene McNary said illegal immigrants convicted of crimes--including murder, rape, robbery and drug violations--accounted for half of a total of 35,390 deportations in fiscal 1992, which ended in October. Special programs targeting immigrant gangs, shifting INS criminal investigators to trouble spots and identifying and deporting felons while they are still in prison have increased the number of deportations of criminal aliens 25% over 1991 and 50% over 1990, officials said.