Immigration chief ends arrest quotas for U.S agents

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Anna Gorman reports that the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, John Morton, announced Monday that he has ended quotas on a controversial program designed to arrest illegal immigrants who have ignored deportation orders. He also said he planned to make more changes to the program soon.

Morton, who took over as head of the federal agency in May, said during a meeting with reporters in Los Angeles that the program needs to do what it was created to do: target absconders who have already had their day in court.

Data from 2008 compiled by the Pew Hispanic Center (which you can download here) found that about three-quarters (76%) of the unauthorized immigrants in the U.S are Latino and that the majority of undocumented immigrants (59%) are from Mexico.

Read the rest of Anna’s report here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City