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IMMIGRATION ADVOCATES FEAR RACE AND NATIONALITY DISCRIMINATION IN DEPORTATION PATTERNS
Immigration activists in the Boston area have begun compiling statistics that indicate that the INS is deporting people on the basis of race and national origin.  In Boston, deportations have increased by 22 percent since 1996.  Deportations of Cape Verdeans have increased by 100 percent, and deportations of Jamaicans have increased by 66 percent.  However, there has been no increase in the percent of British or Russians deported.  Nationally, the statistics are similar.  Deportations of Mexicans have tripled since 1996, with over 150,000 Mexican nationals deported last year, and deportation to Latin American countries have doubled to about 4,000 a year.  Last year, only 32 Irish and 86 Russians were deported.  It is widely accepted that there are large numbers of Irish and Russians in the US illegally. 
These statistics have caused many to express concern that the INS is targeting people for deportation on the basis of their race and national origin, avoiding deporting white people from countries with whom the US has good relations.  They point to the experiences of three people as evidence of the disparate treatment immigrants receive. 
First is Armando Baptista, from Cape Verde.  He came to the US as a child and became a street thug.  Finally, with the encouragement of a priest, he turned himself in to the police and turned his life around.  He had a job and worked with kids, helping them to avoid the street life he led.  Now, however, he faces deportation for his involvement in a barroom brawl.  
Mahnaz Samadi fled from Iran in 1994 and was granted asylum.  She had been very active in the Iranian resistance movement and spent time in jail in Iran.  Now she is facing deportation because she did not disclose her membership in the National Council of Resistance.  At the time she was granted asylum, the efforts of this group were approved of by the US.  Since then, the Council has been declared a terrorist organization.  Many believe this declaration was made in an effort to appeal to moderates within the Iranian government.  Now, accused of fraudulently obtaining asylum, Samadi faces deportation.  She has spent the past three months in detention centers in four different states, often in places where she does not have access to her friends and lawyers. 
In stark contrast to Samadi’s case is the case of Jezdimir Topic.  Topic, a Serbian national, entered the US as a refugee.  He was subsequently identified by three people as the guard of a concentration camp where Muslim women and children were imprisoned.  While his offense is the same as Samadi’s, failure to reveal associations with military organizations, he remains free 16 months after his identification as a camp guard. 
The INS maintains that it is merely enforcing the laws Congress has written, and that it does not target people of specific races or national origins.  It argues that the larger number of some nationalities, such as Mexicans, will inevitably result in higher numbers of deportations.  
 
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