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US deported almost 400,000 people in 2009, with just over a quarter of them described as criminals, the Homeland Security Department said Wednesday.

A total of "393,000 foreign nationals were removed from the United States, the seventh consecutive record high," the DHS said in a statement. Most of the undocumented immigrants were from neighboring Mexico.

Of the total number deported, 128,000 were criminals, the report added.

The overwhelming majority of those deportedâ€"72 percentâ€"were from neighboring Mexico.

President Barack Obama has said his government would take on the thorny issue of immigration policy reform. There are more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States mostly from neighboring Latin America. - source: AFP