DENVER -- The Homeland Security Department is recommending canceling deportation proceedings for more than 1,600 illegal immigrants in Baltimore and Denver.

The recommendations come after a review of cases pending in federal immigration court in those two cities. Officials from DHS and the Justice Department reviewed 11,682 cases as part of an Obama administration pledge to focus deportation efforts on criminal illegal immigrants and those who pose a national security or public safety threat.

Of the 7,923 cases reviewed in Denver, officials recommended closing 1,301, according to figures shared with The Associated Press. In Baltimore, 3,759 cases were reviewed and 366 were recommended for closure.

Homeland Security and Justice officials expect to complete a nationwide review of about 300,000 pending deportation cases by the end of the summer.

Republicans have decried the policy as a back-door way of granting amnesty to people who are living in the U.S. illegally.

ICE said it only has an annual budget to deport 400,000 people, when an estimated 12 million are in the U.S. illegally.