This year, the number of Korean immigrants pending deportation trials nationwide has turned to a declining trend.
According to the status of federal immigration court deportation lawsuits released by the Syracuse University Judicial Information Center (TRAC) on the 21st, as of the end of March, there were 991 cases of deportation of Koreans pending in immigration courts across the United States. This is a decrease of 6.2% compared to 1,057 cases in the same period of the previous year.
Looking at the trend of the number of pending deportation lawsuits by Korean immigrants, after recording 677 cases in 2004, it peaked at 1,474 cases in 2009 and 1,718 cases in 2010, followed by 1,333 cases in 2012, 976 cases in 2013, 875 cases in 2014, and 819 cases in 2015. , 666 cases in 2016, etc., continued to decrease, and then returned to an increasing trend to 672 in 2017, and has continued to rise for 5 consecutive years.
After a 20.8% surge in 2020, when the COVID-19 crisis hit, it increased by an additional 3% last year. Accordingly, some have given rise to the interpretation that the immigration authorities’ crackdown on illegal immigrants has been continuously strengthened despite the COVID-19 crisis.
By each state, California had the highest number of Koreans pending deportation proceedings with 355, and New York had the second most with 152. It was followed by New Jersey with 107, Virginia with 84, Georgia with 64, Texas with 56, Illinois with 28, Washington with 25, and Pennsylvania with 18.
Looking at the Korean immigrants pending in deportation trials by charge, 844 people, or 85.1%, were simply violating the immigration law, such as violation of the residence limit. On the other hand, 78 Koreans, or 7.8%, were referred for criminal convictions such as violations of the criminal law. In addition, it was found that the average length of time that Koreans who were handed over to deportation trials were detained was 1,194 days.