Jeh Johnson already Mischaracterizing the Nature of Obama's Deportations

It has been reported that newly coined Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson had the following to say about the administration's deportation priorities:

We are enforcing the law. We are enforcing the law vigorously and effectively, which results in the removal of over 300,000 people a year over the last several years. We are using the resources Congress gave us to remove those we believe are threats to national security, public safety and border security. And they result in the numbers that you see.

I guess he didn't read the latest press release from the Immigration Policy Center that shows that most immigrants deported by ICE in 2013 were a threat to no one. 

From the press release:

Despite claims by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that it prioritizes the apprehension of terrorists, violent criminals, and gang members, the agency’s own deportation statistics do not bear this out. Rather, most of the individuals being swept up by ICE and dropped into the U.S. deportation machine committed relatively minor, non-violent crimes or have no criminal histories at all.

Busted.

Secretary Johnson also claims that recent deportation numbers mostly consist of individuals apprehended by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the border, attempting to enter illegally.

Or maybe not.

The Immigration Policy Center (IPC) has concluded that immigrants apprehended by CBP that have been living and working within the interior of the country for years are lumped into the "border crossers" statistic. The IPC explains that the distinction between “border removals” and “interior removals” is not "clear-cut" because border removal statistics include all removals of individuals taken into custody by CBP. CBP statistics include arrests of individuals generated by roving patrols “near” the border. CBP also generates arrest from checkpoints set up in the interior of the country. Moreover, the definition of “recent border crossers” includes individuals that entered the United States within the last three years. 

The more things "Change" the more they stay the same.

Click here if you want to see the actual facts about the nature of the Obama administration's recent deportations.