Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took credit for the Obama administration's plans to deport thousands of illegal immigrants starting as early as next month and charged Saturday that criminal deportations have plunged because of lax White House policies.
Since Thursday, the front-runner has been slamming the Department of Homeland Security for its deportation plans, which were reported the day before in
The Washington Post.
Under the nationwide effort, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would pursue only adults and children who have been ordered deported by immigration judges.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson pushed for the deportations, the Post said, despite the program being been controversial inside the White House.
The report said that Johnson took the step because of a recent increase in illegal immigrants from Central America and a recent court ruling saying families must be released more quickly from detention centers.
Trump has made illegal immigration the corner of his platform since announcing his bid for the nomination in June. Here's what he has said on Twitter since the Post's report was published:
But on Saturday, Trump sent this tweet:
That post came in response to Homeland Security's disclosure on Tuesday that it had deported the fewest immigrants since 2006.
Between October 2014 and September 2015, Homeland Security had removed or returned 235,413 people — and 337,117 people were arrested trying to cross the border with Mexico illegally.
The Associated Press in October reported that ICE agents deported about 231,000 people as of Sept. 28.
Homeland Security had largely attributed the drop to fewer arrests at the border. Border arrests dropped about 30 percent in the year.
The 2015 border arrests included about 79,800 people traveling as families and children traveling alone, mostly from Central America.
The overall total of deportations generally did not include Mexicans caught at the border and quickly returned home by the U.S. Border Patrol.
Regarding convicted criminals, about 136,700 were deported in the 2015 budget year, Homeland Security said. The share of criminal immigrants deported rose slightly in the year, from about 56 percent to roughly 59 percent.
The word "deportation" is not an official law-enforcement term used by the federal government,
CNN reports.
Detained illegal immigrants may be forced to leave the United States one of two ways: "removals," which require a court order, and "returns," which occur when immigrants apprehended near the Mexican or Canadian border are told to turn back.
The poor deportation numbers, along with a recent disclosure that a Secret Service agent's gun and other gear was stolen from his private vehicle in broad daylight, led House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz to call for an investigation into Johnson's leadership.
"We need to look at the secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson," the Utah Republican told CNN. "We have the same problems happening with director after director.
"The question needs to go to the secretary and the president himself," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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