Barack Obama has deported more people from the United States than any previous president. While there can be little doubt that the highest number of deportees are of Mexican origin, this article shows that the issue reaches a lot further south in the continent. It is from the online edition of La República. Read the original in Spanish here.
More than six thousand undocumented Peruvian immigrants have been deported from the United States during the administration of president Barack Obama. So that the figure doesn’t continue to increase, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has been requested to open a dialogue with the United States government.
This was revealed to the Andean Parliament by Alberto Adrianzén Merino, who explained that undocumented Peruvians leave the United States under the system of “voluntary departure” or with an order for express deportation.
He explained that in 2009, according to the figures of the US Department of Homeland Security, 1,941 Peruvian nationals left US soil; in 2010, the figure was 1,568; in 2011, 1,503; and in 2012, 1074. That makes a total of 6,086 Peruvians who were left with no other choice than to return home.
Furthermore, Adrianzén reported that during the administration of president Obama, which began in 2009, more than 2 million immigrants have been deported. Two thirds of the total, according to the newspaper The New York Times, had no criminal record.
He stated that “voluntary departure” is one of the methods of deportation available to those who have not committed any serious crime, with the advantage that it allows the undocumented immigrant to apply for a visa to return to the USA.
On the other hand, those deported with an express deportation order cannot return to the country or must wait for a period of between 5 and 20 years to be able to do so legally.
The Andean Parliament requested the Peruvian Foreign Ministry to open a dialogue with the United States in order to stop the deportation of undocumented Peruvian nationals who have not committed serious crimes. This is because the Immigration Reform promised by president Obama doesn’t look like being approved in the short term as it is stalled in the House of Representatives.
Adrianzén said, “I reject this indiscriminate policy of deportations. Separating families and leaving children and adolescents who are studying without their parents comes at a great cost to American society. Obama won the presidency with the votes of the Latino community and promised a different treatment for migrants which until now he has not delivered.
LATIN AMERICA FOCUS 
As a part of a government contract bid, I once ran a correlation study on illegal immigration into the U.S. and their subsequent capture. The only thing the immigrants and arrests correlated with was the economy. In other words, folks come here in pursuit of jobs others don’t want, and leave when the jobs disappear. No crime, no violence, no anything other than a needed, transitory workforce.
It’s all much ado about nothing; racism under the auspices of good government citizenship.
Thanks for the comment Bill. There is a lot of irrational and unfounded hysteria around immigration, documented and undocumented. I hope Obama can get his immigration reforms through and stop deportations of hard working people who pose no threat, contribute to the economy and in many cases are for all intents and purposes American – or as they would say here estadounidense. The scaremongering whipped up by certain sectors of the population and governments in many countries around the world is very sad. My country (Australia) is one of the culprits. Saludos