The Center for Investigative Reporting uncovered some shady deportation record keeping that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) put into place in order to drive up the Obama Administration’s expulsion numbers.
One of the first Republicans to speak out against ICE’s record keeping methods was House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas). Smith is on the record stating that Congress deserves an honest and fair accounting of the deportation numbers.
The Center for Investigative Reporting reported that “392,862 deportations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement included more than 19,000 immigrants who had exited the previous fiscal year, according to agency statistics.”
They also contend that “ICE also ran a Mexican repatriation program five weeks longer than ever before, allowing the agency to count at least 6,500 exits that, without the program, would normally have been tallied by the U.S. Border Patrol.”
But ICE still stands by their numbers.