An Increase In Percentage Of Arrest Of Immigrants In Oklahoma.

An Increase In Percentage Of Arrest Of Immigrants In Oklahoma.

The cases of illegal immigrants have become very prominent in recent months in Dallas area and Oklahoma. The Department of Homeland Security has removed many illegal immigrants from these areas. The federal agency has marked an increase of about 40 percent in the number removal of illegal immigrants. Since the beginning of federal year on October 1 till February, approximately 7,000 illegal immigrants have been reported to be removed. It shows a prominent rise in this case as compared to previous fiscal year the number of this case being 12,000.

The local law enforcement agencies have contributed in an immense manner to deal with problem of illegal immigration. There role has been active throughout the ongoing procedure of locating the fraud cases of immigration. The agency recently launched 13 programs under the ice age program, which included training for local law agencies to enforce immigration law. There are other set of programs like, border enforcement security task forces, a fraud task force and asset penalty.

As per the nationwide survey of the agency, nearly 573,000 fugitive immigrants were in U.S. Fugitive immigrants include those people who are asked to leave the country, but they still continue to reside. A drop of 60,000 from October 2006 has been the first time decrease in the number of fugitive immigrants.

The fiscal year 2007, which ended on September 30, had almost double the number of arrest of illegal immigrants as compared to 2006.The agents in Dallas, north Texas and Oklahoma arrested 16,000 illegal immigrants in 2007. Amongst the arrested people, 699 were fugitives, 168 were illegal immigrants with criminal convictions and nearly 1,100 were those removed from their countries’ origin.

According to Doug Stump, an immigration attorney, the enforcement of immigration law might give way to racial profiling, if one is stopped on the doubt of being illegal immigrant. No one should be stopped by the police till the time one has committed a violation. And above all, there must be an apparent cause before arresting a person.

Stump is of the opinion that this trend set in just before the enactment of House Bill 1804 because of its misinterpretation by law enforcement bodies in rural communities. Another reason behind the upheaval of arrest has been the policy shift. In February, the U.S. Border Patrol shifted its policy in respect of U.S.-Mexican border. Earlier it used to arrest and release the illegal immigrants trying to cross this border. February onwards it started detaining and charging for illegal entry. The first attempt is taken as misconduct, but the second one as a criminal act. This sudden policy shift resulted in nearly 83% increase in immigration suit in one month. So, the critics of immigration enforcement are somewhat sceptical about the enforcement law and work procedure of the federal agencies