Earlier this month, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released their annual report on removals for fiscal year 2013. ICE performed 368,644 removals, of which 133,551 were within U.S. borders. According to ICE, the majority of individuals who were picked up within the U.S. have criminal convictions, suggesting that they came into contact with law enforcement, which then triggered an order of deportation. Of the 235,093 deportations not originating from within the interior of the U.S., 95% were intercepted by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) before being turned over to ICE for removal proceedings. ICE maintains that it focuses its efforts on the deportation of individuals with criminal records, while also preventing immigrants from crossing the border without documentation.
Most of the deported individuals hail from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador respectively, with the vast majority being Mexican nationals.