Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Immigrant rights groups rallied in cities and in front of deportation centers across the U.S. this weekend, marking what they called an historic moment: 2 million deportations under the Obama Administration.
But some have questioned that figure and have pointed to data that shows that deportations are actually down in certain parts of the country and among certain groups.
For a look behind the numbers, we’re joined by Manuel Pastor, director of the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration at the University of Southern California.
Some key findings:
- According to a New York Times analysis of deportation data, two-thirds of deportation cases involved people who have committed only minor infractions.
- Since the "prosecutorial discretion" policy began in 2011, enforcement activity in the interior of the country declined by 40 percent, according to analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies.
- The charge in prosecutions that showed the greatest increase in early 2014, compared to the same period last year, was related to improper entry to the US, according to Syracuse University's TRAC Immigration Program.