But Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, which wants to reduce immigration to the U.S., said the policy encourages people to overstay their visas and remain in this country illegally.

"Yes, if you ask the American people whether the government should go after the worst of the worst or the people helping in the PTA, they'll say go after the worst of the worst," Beck said. "The problem is that the administration is basically telling people that if you come here and overstay your visa and have never been convicted of a violent crime, we will never deport you. It's presence amnesty."

Beck said he sees a mixed message from Napolitano and the administration.

"On one hand, they're trying to convince the nation as a whole that they're tougher than (former President) George W. Bush because they're deporting more people," he said. "On the other hand, they're trying to convince Hispanic voters that they're not really all that tough. It's an interesting high-wire act."

Immigration activists have sharply criticized President Obama for a rising volume of deportations, labeling him the "deporter in chief" and staging large protests that have harmed his standing with some Latinos, a key group of voters for Democrats.

But the portrait of a steadily increasing number of deportations rests on statistics that conceal almost as much as they disclose. A closer examination shows that immigrants living illegally in most of the continental U.S. are less likely to be deported today than before Obama came to office, according to immigration data.

WASHINGTON – The U.S.
deported nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants last year, and an increasing number
of them were convicted criminals, according to figures set for release Tuesday
by the Department of Homeland Security.

Deportations have been on the rise for the
past decade, and the 396,906 illegal immigrants deported in fiscal year 2011 is
the highest number yet, according to the figures.

Under the Obama administration, Homeland
Security issued new priorities to focus deportations on convicted criminals, people
who pose threats to national security and repeated border-crossers. Last year,
55% of those deported were convicted criminals, the highest percentage in
nearly a decade.

Some pundits and political operatives — mostly Democrats — have already announced the demise of the Republican Party. They point to the growth of the Hispanic community and assert that the GOP needs to embrace amnesty for illegal immigrants to attract Hispanic voters.



But in the 1986 election, after a Republican president signed into law the largest amnesty for illegal immigrants in American history, only 23 percent of Hispanics voted for Republican candidates.



More recently, a November 2009 Zogby poll found that 82 percent of likely Hispanic voters strongly or somewhat support reducing the illegal immigrant population over time by enforcing existing immigration laws, such as requiring employers to verify the legal status of workers and increasing border enforcement.



Exit polls reported by CNN reveal that 38 percent of Hispanic voters cast ballots for House Republican candidates in 2010, significantly more than in 2006 (30 percent) and 2008 (29 percent). And this level of Hispanic support for Republican candidates came despite widespread pre-election claims by advocates for illegal immigration that a pro-rule-of-law stand would alienate Hispanic voters.