Deportations up in the region

Federal officials say deportations of illegal immigrants are up around the region. More than 14 thousand people have been deported from Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina since October. That's according to federal officials who says that each year more and more illegal immigrants are sent back to their native countries.

U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement officials told The Greenville News that the agency deports more people every year. Federal agents say they find out about those in the country illegally through several different ways. Some jails around the region now screen all their prisoners and notify agents when they find someone who is in the country illegally. Others are caught in workplace raids or by fugitive teams.

Once immigrants lose their appeals to stay they are deported at a cost, officials say, of about $700 dollars to the agency.