The Associated Press has published figures from ICE's weekly internal metrics showing that immigration enforcement has continued to decline in 2014. But the reasons offered sound more like spin from the DHS or ICE press office, which for years has peddled the tall tale that the Obama administration is tougher than any other on enforcement.

Writes AP immigration writer Alicia Caldwell:

[ICE] sent home 258,608 immigrants between the start of the budget year last October and July 28 this summer. During the same period a year earlier, it removed 320,167 people — meaning a decrease this year of nearly 20 percent.

Over the same period ending in July 2012, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 344,624 people, some 25 percent more than this year, according to the federal figures obtained by the AP.

I have earlier editions of the same report Caldwell examined that show the same trend. Indeed, it was first reportedby Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times back in April, not long after incoming DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson admitted that the administration previously had been cooking the books to give the impression of record deportations.

Caldwell then seems to restate the administration talking points regarding the reasons for the decline, providing two explanations:

1. "The Obama administration decided as early as summer 2011 to focus its deportation efforts on criminal immigrants or those who posed a threat to national security or public safety." She points out that many non-criminal deportation cases are "stuck" in the immigration court system, which has now a backlog of 400,000 cases. 
    
2. Border Patrol agents are detaining more Central Americans, and the deportation process is more work and takes longer for them, because they have to be flown home.

These "explanations" don't hold water. Let's take them one at a time.

Nearly two-thirds of likely voters in key U.S.House and Senate races disapprove of how President Obama is handling the immigration issue, with a narrow plurality favoring the Republican party over the Democrats.

Sixty-four percent disapprove of how Mr. Obama is handling immigration, a new Politico poll said. Thirty-four percent trust the Republican party more to handle the issue and 31 percent say they trust Democrats more.

Mr. Obama announced earlier this month he would put off taking unilateral action to halt deportations until after the November elections, which disappointed immigrant rights groups but in the near term could help several vulnerable Democrats who feared such a move from the president might doom their campaigns.

As for the influx of unaccompanied minors across the southern border, 49 percent say the children should be deported after the appropriate judicial hearings and 29 percent support having them stay in the country.

The father of a man killed by an illegal immigrant in a car crash has challenged President Obama to visit his son's grave before declaring any executive action halting deportations.

In a letter that Don Rosenberg sent last month to Mr. Obama through top officials at the Homeland Security Department, the grieving father said his son Drew might be alive had the federal government deported illegal immigrants who had run-ins with the law.

"My son and all of the others are considered collateral damage in the quest for votes and campaign contributions," he wrote. "Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime."

Mr. Rosenberg's son was killed while riding his motorcycle in 2010 when Roberto Galo, an illegal immigrant, made an illegal turn and crashed into him. Mr. Rosenberg said the man, who was driving without a license, ran over his son three times as he tried to flee the scene.

Thousands of illegal juvenile immigrants from Central America do not show up for their deportation hearings across the country, the Justice Department estimates, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Eighteen out of 20 unaccompanied migrant children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador failed to turn up for their immigration hearing in Dallas one day this week, the newspaper said.

Juan Osuna, who heads the Justice Department’s immigration courts, told a congressional committee recently that, on average, 46 percent of juvenile migrants miss their immigration court hearings, according to the Morning News.

Homeland Security has estimated that 100,000 juveniles have entered the U.S. illegally without a parent in the last two fiscal years, which would mean that 46,000 of them were or will be no-shows at deportation hearings.

The 90 percent absentee rate in the Dallas courtroom alarmed federal Immigration Judge Michael Baird, who said it was "highly unusual." He set a new date, Aug. 11, for the 18 missing juveniles to show up or he’ll issue deportation orders, the Morning News reported.

Baird expressed concerned that the children may not have properly been informed of the hearings by immigration authorities, while Homeland Security attorney Lynn Javier said it was "prudent" to set a new date for the hearings, according to the newspaper.

The extent of the no-shows led to suggestions that the children and their families had deliberately missed the court dates and had absconded, the Morning News said.

None of the 18 children due to appear in the Dallas court were represented by attorneys in their absence, while the two juveniles who did show up also didn’t have lawyers.
 

On Wednesday’s “America’s Newsroom” on the Fox News Channel, Gov. Mary Fallin (R-OK) said she found out about the transfer of illegal immigrants to her state “through the media.”

“I was alerted through the media” stated Fallin. And that when she visit the facility where the unaccompanied minors would be housed, “I was told I wasn’t to record any conversations, ask any questions, take any pictures, just be silent and have a quick tour.” 

She added that on her tour of the facility where the unaccompanied minors are housed in her state she was only shown “what they wanted me to see.” 

DES MOINES, Iowa (CBSDC/AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday that he does not want Iowa to host any of the thousands of children from Central America who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone.

MURRIETA, Calif. — Following a string of contentious protests in Southern California, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Thursday it will no longer send busloads of undocumented immigrants to San Diego or El Centro.

The immigrants — mainly families and unaccompanied children from Central America — were being bused to facilities in San Diego and El Centro every three days to alleviate overwhelmed detention facilities in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

"It looks like with the almost 1,000 (undocumented immigrants) processed between El Centro and San Diego, for now (it) helps," said Lombardo Amaya, union president of the El Centro chapter of the National Border Patrol Council in a message to The Desert Sun. "This does not mean that we will not continue to receive more loads in the future."

Border Patrol spokesman Paul Carr said the agency has reduced its backlog in south Texas and is now able to process more migrants there.

Carr said the decision to discontinue transfers to San Diego and El Centro was not a result of the ongoing protests that have taken place in Murrieta, Calif.

Number of U.S.-born not working grew by 17 million

Download a PDF of this Backgrounder

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Steven A. Camarota is the Director of Research and Karen Zeigler is a demographer at the Center for Immigration Studies.

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Government data show that since 2000 all of the net gain in the number of working-age (16 to 65) people holding a job has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal). This is remarkable given that native-born Americans accounted for two-thirds of the growth in the total working-age population. Though there has been some recovery from the Great Recession, there were still fewer working-age natives holding a job in the first quarter of 2014 than in 2000, while the number of immigrants with a job was 5.7 million above the 2000 level.

All of the net increase in employment went to immigrants in the last 14 years partly because, even before the Great Recession, immigrants were gaining a disproportionate share of jobs relative to their share of population growth. In addition, natives' losses were somewhat greater during the recession and immigrants have recovered more quickly from it. With 58 million working-age natives not working, the Schumer-Rubio bill (S.744) and similar House measures that would substantially increase the number of foreign workers allowed in the country seem out of touch with the realities of the U.S. labor market.

 

Three conclusions can be drawn from this analysis:

 

• First, the long-term decline in the employment for natives across age and education levels is a clear indication that there is no general labor shortage, which is a primary justification for the large increases in immigration (skilled and unskilled) in the Schumer-Rubio bill and similar House proposals.
• Second, the decline in work among the native-born over the last 14 years of high immigration is consistent with research showing that immigration reduces employment for natives.
• Third, the trends since 2000 challenge the argument that immigration on balance increases job opportunities for natives.