INS Deportations Soar as Crackdown Proceeds

Federal authorities ousted more than 111,000 illegal immigrants--including more than 50,000 criminals--in the past year, shattering previous removal records and surpassing their own goals for deportations, the Immigration and Naturalization Service reported Wednesday.

California led the nation with more than 46,000 people forced to leave the country, about 41% of the total, reflecting the ongoing crackdown along the Mexican border.

But the 50% increase in removals in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas was lower than the overall national increase of 62%, and far behind surges in Miami, New York, Newark, N.J., Chicago and parts of Texas, where some INS offices doubled and even quadrupled the number of deportations.

“We can and will make America’s streets and communities safer by deporting criminal aliens,” Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said at a news conference, attributing the increase to last year’s hike in INS funding.

“Our message is very simple: Those who immigrate legally are welcome; those who don’t obey our laws will be sent home,” she said.

According to the INS report, the vast majority of deportees--76%--were Mexicans, who make up an estimated 54% of the country’s illegal immigrant population. Thirteen percent were from five Latin American countries: El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.

In addition to the 111,794 people forced to leave, INS officials say 78,000 illegal immigrants facing deportation proceedings returned to their native countries voluntarily in the fiscal year that ended last month. Another 1.3 million were stopped at the border.

“It’s further evidence that we are turning the corner on the issue of illegal entries into this country,” Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) said. “The [Clinton] administration and the Congress deserve some credit here. We should have done this years ago, but now it’s starting to work.”

But although the number of people being deported is on the rise, the INS estimates that 275,000 new immigrants arrive in this country without permission each year. That means the increased deportations did not reduce the estimated 5 million illegal immigrants currently living here. Rather, that number continues to swell.

The trend reported by the INS “is certainly in the right direction,” said John Martin of the restrictionist group Federation for American Immigration Reform. But he added: “As long as the illegal alien population is still growing, you would expect deportations also to increase.”

INS Commissioner Doris Meissner said Thursday’s report shows that her agency is beginning to stem the tide of illegal immigration. “We are narrowing the gap and getting closer and closer to reducing that number,” she said. “The important point is that all the trend lines are in the right direction.”

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On Capitol Hill, several lawmakers involved in immigration issues said the increase in removals was expected after the huge boost in INS funding last year. The agency’s budget for detention and deportation increased by $270 million, or 73.5%.

Meissner and Reno said the increased removal rate grew out of increased coordination among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, as well as two new INS programs. One allows authorities to identify immigrant criminals in jail and hold deportation hearings before their sentences expire; the other expedites the process by which INS inspectors turn away people who do not have proper papers.

The multi-pronged deportation strategy also has sent teams of federal agents knocking on doors and canvassing job sites seeking noncitizens subject to removal.

The crackdown has fanned fears in immigrant neighborhoods in Southern California and elsewhere. “We were all asleep when they came,” said Irving Davila, 27, who was arrested early Thursday in South Los Angeles and later interviewed at the INS lockup downtown.

Davila, who served four years in a California state prison for a 1991 burglary, came to the United States from Nicaragua at age 1. His predicament mirrors that of many longtime noncitizen residents who never anticipated serious immigration trouble--until the INS swooped into their homes as part of the Clinton administration’s crackdown on immigrants with criminal records.

Others were discovered while in jail.

Samson Nnamdi, 25, was serving a seven-day sentence in the Los Angeles County Jail for joy-riding. After 15 years in the U.S., he now faces deportation to Britain, where he says he knows no one. Salvador Castillo, 29, was handed to INS agents as he completed a three-year prison sentence stemming from a drug conviction, and is now heading to Mexico.

“I got to come back,” said Castillo, who has lived in California since he was 6. “All I know about Mexico is that they have good peppers.”

Of the criminals deported, the INS said 43% had convictions for drug-related offenses. Eighteen percent had committed other “aggravated felonies”--from prostitution and forgery to murder.

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The surge in criminal deportations has prompted the INS to warn foreign government officials about the backgrounds of the people they are sending home.

But most of those deported, at the new pace of nearly 1,000 a week, do not have criminal records. While the rate of criminal deportations was up 35% from the previous fiscal year, ouster of noncriminals jumped 93%.

These are people like Fidel Hernandez, expelled to his native El Salvador this summer after being arrested by INS agents at the Costa Mesa hotel where he worked.

“What is the sense in this?” Hernandez asked in an interview before being deported, worrying that his legal-resident wife and two U.S.-born daughters--ages 4 and 3 weeks--would land on welfare without his income. “Why don’t they go after criminals and leave hard-working people alone?”

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Wilgoren reported from Washington, McDonnell from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Record Numbers Deported

The Immigration and Naturalization Service removed more than 111,000 illegal immigrants in the past year, an increase of 42,000 over the previous year. About 45% had criminal records.

NUMBER OF OUSTERS

Fiscal years, which end Oct. 1

1995: 50,414

1996: 69,040

1997: 111,794

Source: U.S. Department of Justice; researched by D’JAMILA SALEM FITZGERALD / Los Angeles Times

REMOVALS IN SELECTED CITIES

Numbers for ‘97, with change in parentheses

San Diego: 34,932 (+51%)

L.A.: 8,357 (+50%)

Chicago: 1,181 (+168%)

Miami: 3,602 (+133%)

New York: 2,999 (+95%)

L.A. STORIES

* Irving Davila, 27. Emigrated from Nicaragua at age 1. Father of a U.S.-born newborn daughter. Being deported for 1991 burglary.

* Samson Nnamdi, 25. English citizen of Nigerian ancestry has been in U.S. 15 years. INS found him serving time for joyriding and is moving to deport him.

* Jaime Vasquez, 43. Came from Mexico 20 years ago. Truck driver has two U.S.-born daughters. Owns truck and home. 1988 marijuana conviction a factor in deportation.