Encouraging Progress on Deportations : Statistics support the steady, measured approach of the INS

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service says a record number of foreigners, 51,600, were deported in 1995 for being in the United States illegally. While those deportations represent only a tiny dent in America’s illegal immigration problems, the number does illustrate that the Clinton administration is moving in the right direction on control of the nation’s borders.

Experts who track immigration trends can only guess at how many illegal immigrants are living in the country. A rough consensus currently is between 2 million and 3 million. But the INS knows exactly how many it formally deports each year, and the 1995 figure is 15% more than in 1994 and up nearly 75% from 1990. So the INS has shown progress, indicating that its measured approach, pressed methodically despite a prevailing anti-immigrant hysteria, is effective.

Clearly Congress’ decision to in- crease the amount of money spent on border enforcement has paid off. That should provide more political support for the INS spending bill now pending in Congress, which calls for a $128.7-million increase in enforcement funds. In terms of manpower, that means an additional 1,400 INS officers, mostly detention and deportation officers.

Another wise decision that INS Commissioner Doris Meissner made was to invest in a computerized identification system for INS border inspectors at busy ports of entry like San Ysidro, south of San Diego, and El Paso.

But the most important change in INS procedures was Meissner’s decision to expand and accelerate the procedure for holding formal deportation hearings for foreigners who had served time on criminal convictions. Most of the 1995 deportees, 62% of the total, were criminals expelled after completing their sentences.

In the past, these foreigners were sent to federal detention centers to await deportation hearings. Or, if there was no room in the centers, they would simply be set free and ordered to return voluntarily for the hearings. Obviously many did not show up. Under the new INS policy, an INS judge goes to the prison, hears the prisoner’s case for remaining in the United States and makes a decision on the spot. Those rejected are taken directly to an airport and put on the next plane to their country of origin.

With Congress immersed in a new debate about immigration reform, members should acknowledge the INS successes before they try to reinvent the wheel. Washington needs a steady, credible immigration policy, not a hysterical response to demagogues demanding rash, unproven policies.