The Obama administration deported fewer immigrants over the past 12 months than at any time since 2006, according to government figures obtained by The Associated Press. Deportations of criminal immigrants have fallen to the lowest levels since President Barack Obama took office in 2009, despite his pledge to focus on finding and deporting criminals living in the country illegally.

The share of criminal immigrants deported in relation to overall immigrants deported rose slightly, from 56 percent to 59 percent. The overall total of 231,000 deportations generally does not include Mexicans who were caught at the border and quickly returned home by the US Border Patrol. The figure does include roughly 136,700 convicted criminals deported in the last 12 months. Total deportations dropped 42 percent since 2012. The Homeland Security Department has not yet publicly disclosed the new internal figures, which include month-by-month breakdowns and cover the period between Oct 1, 2014, and Sept 28. (AP)