More than 400,000 illegal immigrants were deported this year, setting a record for the United States.

The majority of the deportations (55%) involved individuals with criminal records, which represented another record, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Another 21% were repeat immigration violators.

President Barack Obama has made it a priority to concentrate deportations on those who have committed violent crimes. But even with this focus, the total number of those deported in Obama’s four years in office has nearly matched all deportations during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration.

Some immigration reform advocates reacted sharply to the news of 2012’s record-setting total.

While noting the importance of going after immigrants with criminal histories, Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) said he objected to the fact that 90,000 undocumented parents of American-born children continue to be deported each year.

“We must also realize that among these hundreds of thousands of deportations are parents and breadwinners and heads of American families that are assets to American communities and have committed no crimes,” Gutierrez said in a prepared statement. "Solving this problem in a humane and sensible way requires Congress to act on immigration reform and do what we have been unable to do for 25 or 30 years.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Deportations of Illegal Immigrants in 2012 Reach New US Record (by David Grant, Christian Science Monitor)

Removal Statistics (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

Deportations Reach Record High (by Matt Bewig, AllGov)

Obama Administration Steps up Deportations in an Election Year…Again (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Obama Administration Drastically Steps Up Deportation of Parents of U.S.-Born Citizens (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)