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Feds released hundreds of immigrant murderers, drunk drivers, sex-crimes convicts
Well isn't that just peachy... our beloved government thinks its an awesome idea to release murders, rapist and other lowlifes back on the streets. Its one of those things where if it wasn't so messed up and serious, it would be funny. Its one thing to release low level drug dealers and such, releasing people that have committed major felonies like murder though? That's a bit crazy.
Immigration officials knowingly released dozens of murderers and thousands of drunken drivers back into the U.S. in 2013, according to Obama administration statistics that could undercut the president’s argument that he is trying to focus on the most serious criminals in his immigration enforcement.
Among the 36,000 immigrants whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released from custody last year there were 116 with convictions for homicide, 43 for negligent manslaughter, 14 for voluntary manslaughter and one with a conviction classified by ICE as “homicide-willful kill-public official-gun.”
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The immigrants were in deportation proceedings, meaning ICE was trying to remove them from the country and could have held them in detention but released them anyway, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, which published the numbers Monday. The Washington Times also obtained the data.
“This would be considered the worst prison break in American history, except it was sanctioned by the president and perpetrated by our own immigration officials,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, Texas Republican. “The administration’s actions are outrageous. They willfully and knowingly put the interests of criminal immigrants before the safety and security of the American people.”
The data raised thorny questions about how the government decides which immigrants to detain and which it will release as they await court hearings and final action on deportation.
Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, said the numbers undercut the Obama administration’s argument that it is trying to keep its enforcement efforts targeted at dangerous criminals.
“We keep hearing from the administration that they are focused like a laser on enforcement against the worst of the worst, convicted criminals, as their top priority. On the other hand, they are releasing, at a rate of about 100 a day, aliens from their custody with criminal convictions, and many of them are serious criminal convictions,” she said.
In a statement, ICE said many of those it released were subject to electronic monitoring, posting bond or having to check in with officers.
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In other cases, the agency was required to release immigrants because of court decisions, including a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that found immigrants whose home countries refused to take them back could not be held for more than six months.
ICE said 75 percent of the convicted murderers released in 2013 were considered “mandatory releases” in compliance with court decisions.
“Others, typically those with less serious offenses, were released as a discretionary matter after career law enforcement officers made a judgment regarding the priority of holding the individual, given ICE’s resources, and prioritizing the detention and removal of individuals who pose a risk to public safety or national security,” ICE said.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson will have to answer questions.
Mr. Goodlatte and Mr. Smith asked ICE for the release numbers but said the agency never turned them over.
“These criminals should be locked up, not roaming our streets,” the lawmakers said.
ICE has told Congress it doesn’t need to hold as many immigrants in detention. In its budget request this year, ICE asked that Congress fund slightly more than 30,500 detention beds a day, down from the 34,000 set in current law.
“This funding level of beds will allow ICE to detain the current mandatory population, as well as the higher-risk, non-mandatory detainees,” ICE Deputy Director Daniel Ragsdale testified in March.
Ms. Vaughan said that rings hollow if the administration is releasing murderers and other serious criminals even with 34,000 detention beds.
The 36,007 criminal aliens counted in the data had more than 87,000 convictions among them: 15,635 for drunken driving, 9,187 for what ICE labeled “dangerous drugs,” 2,691 for assault, 1,724 for weapons offenses and 303 for “flight escape” — a category that would seem to make them bad candidates for release.
The immigrants are in addition to the 68,000 other immigrants that ICE officers came across but didn’t put into deportation proceedings.
ICE came under fire last year for releasing thousands of immigrants and blaming it on the sequester budget cuts. Among those released were 622 criminals, including 24 with repeated felony convictions so bad that the administration had to go recapture them.
Officials later said it wasn’t the sequester, but rather the regular budget process that caused them to have to release the immigrants. They said they had been running above the 34,000 detention level for too long and would have had to cut detention to average out the numbers.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by XLFD on
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Illegal aliens that can only spend a maximum of six months incarcerated if their native country won't take them back?! Now that sounds like an incentive for making career criminals out of disaffected aliens.
Need a killer for hire? Juan can do it cheap.
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Permalink Reply by Willy on
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I agree X. That's the paragraph that really stood out in this topic. That ruling brings in a myriad of problems. It's an open door to the U.S. for criminals that Mexico wants to get rid of. If anything, there should be prison time for illegals. We wouldn't have many of them if they knew they were facing years in prison by crossing the border illegally. I'm hearing more and more Spanish radio stations as I travel which indicates that we have a massive number of illegals and illegals who were made legal. I even see pop up advertising on the internet in Spanish. I have aslo observed Spanish billboards around the State.
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Permalink Reply by NYC on
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Just because someone speaks Spanish or is Hispanic , that does not make them illegal. If there are more Spanish radio stations and such, it just means there is a high Hispanic population in listening range- they could be legal.
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Yes, they could be legal if this was Mexico. A few years back there were few Spanish radio stations but now when you tune in stations one can hear them in any city. On a recent trip thru Grand Rapids I counted 5 Spanish speaking stations as I flipped through the the dial. Now one can say nothing has changed expect there are just more stations or in my case I'm assuming there has been a massive increase in Spanish speaking people in the State thus there is a demand for more stations. My money's on the fact that the large influx of Spanish speaking people was not from legal migration. Just a guess.
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