wethepeopleofamerica.org

March 26, 2007, 11:44PM

By MICHELLE MITTELSTADT

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The number of foreigners targeted for removal from the United States has soared to more than 623,000 even as the federal government has dedicated nearly $205 million over the past four years to deploy new fugitive apprehension teams.

In a report issued Monday, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general said the 52 fugitive operations teams have been hobbled by insufficient detention space, inadequate databases and the inability to track individual teams’ performance.

Though Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn’t quibble with the inspector general’s findings, the agency’s detention and removal operations chief said the report represents a dated snapshot that doesn’t reflect a huge infusion of funds to add more teams and jail beds, and improve an antiquated database.

Still, the inspector general found that the foreigners — defined by the agency as “fugitives” because they had either been ordered deported or had criminal records that made them ineligible to remain in the country — has swelled from 314,000 in 2001 to 623,292 as of last August. The fugitives are just one subset of the illegal immigrant population, which is estimated at 12 million.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4663696.html