The Washington Post reports US immigration authorities have set controversial new quotas for agents to deport more undocumented workers. The head of ICE detention and removal operations, James Chaparro, outlined the plan in a recent memo. He wrote that ICE is on pace to deport about 310,000 immigrants for the year ending September 30, well below ICE’s goal of 400,000 deportations a year. In the memo, Chaparro said ICE will increase the number of overall deportations by increasing detention space to hold more undocumented immigrants, by sweeping prisons to find more candidates for deportation, and by launching a so-called “surge” in efforts to catch undocumented immigrants whose only violation was lying on immigration or visa applications or reentering the United States after being deported. The moves outlined in the memo differ from public pledges by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to focus enforcement on the most dangerous undocumented immigrants. Deportations of convicted criminals climbed 19 percent in 2009 and are on pace to climb 40 percent this year. Joan Friedland of the National Immigration Law Center criticized the ICE memo, saying quotas will encourage agents to target easy cases, not the ones who pose the greatest safety risk.