U.S. deports record number of Latinos in 2011 - the majority of them to Mexico

The United States deported nearly 400,000 people in fiscal year 2011, the most in its history. Some 377,500 were of Latin American origin, and almost 287,0000 were Mexican nationals. Almost three of every four persons (72%) deported from the United States during the last accounting period were Mexican.

Latin American nations occupied the top nine places for number of U.S. deportees. Jamaica was in a distant tenth position. Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador took first, second, third and fourth places. All are feeling the ravages of narcoviolence, and a war against Mexican and Colombian drug cartels which has spilled far beyond the frontiers of both countries.

The statistical information was released this week by the Office of Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The 2011 fiscal year ended last month.

ICE director John Morton said that about 55% of all deportees from all nations had been convicted of some crime in the United States, either felony or misdemeanor. He did not indicate whether than number included deportees convicted only of immigration related offenses. Some Latin activists complained after learning of the statistics, claiming that they show a clear pattern of discrimination. "It's as if having a Mexican face itself amounts to a crime," said one man who works with a social service organization which offers aid to the undocumented.

President Felipe Calderón spoke out on immigration issues this week at a forum in Mexico City (http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/10/us-owes-its-strength-to-immigrant-labor.html). In remarks critical of U.S. policy, Calderon said that ultimately the United States would harm its own economic vitality and competitiveness in the world market by enacting laws which target migrant labor and employers who seek to hire from that workforce. Calderón also said that the historic imbalance between Mexicans illegally entering the Untied States and those voluntarily returning home has become a zero sum game. The claim appears to be borne out by economic and labor data on both sides of the border. A poorly performing U.S. economy with high unemployment, coupled with steadily increasing job opportunities in Mexico, has lured back some of its domestic labor force which formerly headed north of the border for jobs. The enactment of severe immigration laws in blue collar labor states like Arizona and Alabama has also fueled the return migration.

Based upon the 2010 census, about 50.5 million persons of Hispanic ancestry live in the United States, representing 16% of its population. Of these some 63% are Mexican, or about 31.8 million people as of last year. There are 11.2 million undocumented persons in the United States, of whom 81% are Hispanic. The government says that an estimated 6.5 million Mexicans have no lawful documentation. They represent 20% of all Mexicans in the U.S., and over half of undocumented persons of all nationalities in the United States.