In an effort to step up deportations and ease the burden of the immigration court system, immigration officials have increased scouring jails and courts nationwide and reviewing years-old criminal records to identify undocumented immigrants, The Washington Post reports.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that over a 12-month period ended Sept. 30, it placed 164,000 immigrants in deportation proceedings, a sharp increase from the 64,000 the agency deported the 12-month period before.  ICE estimates that the number will rise above 200,000 this year.   

Since 2006, according to ICE chief Julie Myers, ICE has studied the demographics of correctional facilities across the country and has assigned more agents to check facilities with higher numbers of foreign-born offenders.  The same year, ICE’s Criminal Alien Program created partnerships between immigration officials and jailers at nearly 4,500 detention facilities, as well as opening up a Chicago office that is responsible for screening immigrant inmates nationwide.  "It’s such a high priority of mine to make sure that people are not released from criminal institutions onto the street," said Myers.  

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A Grand Prairie , Texas , Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent killed himself after an armed standoff with a police officer and three ICE colleagues last week, The Associate Press reports.  Police discovered a suitcase full of pornography, a flag with a swastika and more than a half-dozen weapons after finding ICE agent Mark Juvette dead.  Juvette, 40, worked for ICE’s Dallas Office of Detention and Removal.  ICE officials declined to comment.