Deportation

Federal authorities have repeatedly said their priority is to find and remove illegal immigrants with violent criminal histories, but the U.S. government's stepped-up enforcement in recent years has led to the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants convicted of nonviolent crimes, according to a new study.

Five people, including a former Armenian consul, have been arrested in alleged schemes to block the deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of murder and other serious crimes, federal immigration officials announced Tuesday. The defendants allegedly obtained letters from the Armenian Consulate in Los Angeles and then sold them -- for as much as $35,000 each -- to at least two dozen convicted criminals facing deportation, officials said. The letters, which were sent to U.S.

On a recent afternoon, 15-year-old Marlon Parras stood on stage in front of 3,000 people and talked about the hardships he and his 13-year-old sister have faced since their parents were deported to Guatemala. He wept as he spoke of his parents' decision to leave them, both American citizens, with relatives and church members so they could continue their education in suburban Atlanta. "This is not a family," Marlon told the crowd. "This is not fair."

The cancer-stricken father of a U.S. Marine serving in Afghanistan was arrested at his Florida home last week and is scheduled for deportation to his native Hungary. The detention of Janos Lutz, 53, has outraged his family, including his son, Pfc. Janos V. "Johnny" Lutz, a machine-gunner serving in Helmand province. "We are out here fighting . . . and I find out the United States of America is deporting my dad?" Lutz, 21, said Thursday in a telephone interview from Afghanistan.

A U.S. soldier who fought in Iraq before deserting faces deportation from Canada by June 12 after his application to remain was rejected. Corey Glass, 25, of Fairmount, Ind., could face jail. He lives in Toronto.

Federal authorities are increasingly deporting illegal immigrants through a fast-track program that bypasses court hearings, an effort by the federal government to save money, reduce backlogs and clear detention beds. The number of detainees in California and across the nation who agreed to be deported without first seeing a judge jumped fivefold between 2004 and 2007, from 5,481 to nearly 31,554. In the first half of 2008, 17,445 speedy deportation orders were signed.

A Chinese couple who fought for seven years to get their daughter back from foster care won a judge's approval Thursday to avoid deportation by leaving the United States voluntarily. Shaoqiang and Qin Luo He regained custody of 8-year-old Anna Mae in July on orders from the state Supreme Court. The high court overturned a Memphis judge who cleared the way in 2004 for an American couple, Jerry and Louise Baker, to adopt the child over her parents' objections.

An American scholar and freelance journalist who recently wrote about the growing strength of Taliban militants in Pakistan has been expelled, a media rights group said Saturday. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern that the deportation of Nicholas Schmidle, who has written recently for the New York Times Magazine and the online magazine Slate, could presage heavier pressure on foreign journalists working in Pakistan.

To U.S. officials, a new pact announced this week with Vietnam, allowing the government to deport illegal immigrants, was almost routine -- a straightforward matter of treating Vietnam like other nations. But for many among the tens of thousands of immigrants in Orange County, the nation's largest Vietnamese population center, nothing about their homeland is routine.

Two foreign nationals who said they were forcibly drugged by U.S. immigration officials during failed efforts to deport them have agreed to a settlement in the case, their attorney said Tuesday.