Deportation cases in Illinois

This is a look overall at closed federal deportation cases that have resulted in either voluntary or removal departure orders since Fiscal Year 2008.

Though the orders nationwide have sharply declined, Illinois ranks number nine in the top 10 states for deportation orders .

Once a non-citizen is brought to a county jail, his or her fingerprints are scanned and transmitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and forwarded to the Department of Homeland Security.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency can then determine if that person is eligible to be deported.

Secure Communities began as a pilot program in 2008, at the end of the George W. Bush Administration, and it has expanded during the Obama Administration ICE reports Secure Communities has helped remove more than 151,000 people, including more than 55,000 convicted of major violent offenses such as murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children.

From 2009 through January of this year, the Department of Homeland Security reported that about 3,000 people were arrested in the 26 Illinois counties in the program and taken into ICE custody.

Of those arrested, 27 percent committed felonies or misdemeanors and 26 percent of those crimes punishable by less than one year in prison.

The remaining half broke immigration law by violating the terms of their visa, entering the United States without inspection, or refusing to leave the U.S. after being ordered to do so.

These people may have criminal convictions, but none confirmed by ICE. ICE said it expects to roll out Secure Communities nationwide by the end of next year. Illinois and Alabama are the only states that have not activated the program statewide, according to an ICE report. — Sean Powers, Illinois Public Media 

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Source: Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

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