US Customs and Border Protection Process

OTAY MESA, CA - FEBRUARY 28: Three immigrants convicted of a felony or deportable offence in the U.S., left, are lined up for an admission procedure by a security guard at a privately managed Otay Mesa, California detention center February 28, 2006. The foreign nationals will be scheduled for a deportation hearing in a US Immigration court. The blue uniform denotes they are classified as not being violent. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), based in Nashville, Tennasee, manages the 1000 inmate California detention center it leases from San Diego county. California was the first state in 1987 to implement a program where foreign nationals convicted of a crime were eligible for deportation. The federal issue of not having enough beds or detention centers is scheduled to be rectified in 2006 with increased Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding. Many violators of immigration laws flee before their cases come to trial. It is estimated that some 6.3 million illegal Mexican immigrants live in the US and some 485,000 undocumented Mexican immigrants enter the US annually. The US government estimates 11 million illegal immigrants reside in the US In 2005, San Diego and Imperial counties of southern California deported 40,335 Mexican and Central American immigrants. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)