What Illegal Immigration Crackdown

“Arrests double in crackdown on illegal immigrants in N.J” say the headlines in the newspapers across the Garden State. What a joke.

It’s estimated the illegal alien population in New Jersey is between 480,000 to 1 million. There’s less than a 1 percent chance of an illegal alien being arrested and an infinitesimal probability of being deported under this so-called “crackdown”.

Last year the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 1,772 illegal immigrants in New Jersey – 987 were removed from the United States, 350 were placed on a detainer which requires deportation proceedings begin after criminal charges are resolved and 435 were simply released on immigrations bonds.

New Jersey’s 300 ICE agents averaged slightly less than 6 illegal alien arrests per agent last year. Of the 1.772 arrested, 1,610 were immigration fugitives who had previously been arrested, but ignored final orders of deportation issued by immigration judges. In other words, the “crackdown” amounted to 162 additional illegal aliens being caught in New Jersey for all of 2006, or about one arrest for every two ICE agents.

Pathetic.