Thread: ICE announces enhanced oversight and release procedures for custody determinations

News Releases

ENFORCEMENT AND REMOVAL

03/18/2015

ICE announces enhanced oversight and release procedures for custody determinations involving detainees with criminal convictions

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced enhanced oversight and release procedures for custody determinations involving individuals with criminal convictions.

"Like Secretary Johnson, I am determined to do what we can to improve and reform our immigration system within the confines of existing law," said ICE Director Sarah R. Saldaña. "Today’s announcement is an example of this, and I believe it will enhance public safety and public confidence in our enforcement and administration of the immigration laws."

The primary mission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is to keep America safe, including from threats posed by individuals with criminal records who come into ICE custody.

To that end, and consistent with DHS’s civil immigration enforcement priorities, we have focused our detention and removal resources on public safety and national security threats to ensure we are doing everything we can to keep America safe. ICE is committed to making certain that both mandatory and discretionary releases are executed in a way that promotes public safety and protects our communities. Last year, Secretary Johnson directed ICE leadership to re-assess the decision-making process that leads to a determination to set a bond amount or otherwise allow the release of an individual with a criminal conviction, and the factors that contribute to that decision. As a result of this review, ICE is instituting the following enhanced policies and procedures with regard to the potential release of individuals with a criminal conviction:

First, ICE is instituting enhanced supervisory approval for discretionary releases of certain categories of individuals with criminal convictions, including those convicted of two or more felonies or any single aggravated felony, by requiring that any such decision be approved by an Assistant Field Office Director, Deputy Field Office Director, or Field Office Director.

Second, while there may be limitations on detention capacity in some circumstances, detention capacity should not be a determinative factor in the release of an individual with a serious criminal record. ICE manages a nationwide detention system and will manage capacity to ensure that field offices have access to sufficient adult detention space to detain public safety threats until removal, including reprioritizing resources, if necessary, to ensure the promotion of public safety.

Third, ICE has established a panel of senior managers to review discretionary release decisions for individuals convicted of crimes of violence, to ensure compliance with supervisory approval requirements and identify any inconsistencies in release determinations across the agency. This panel will convene monthly and report regularly to ICE leadership.

Fourth, ICE will take steps to enhance the supervision of a number of individuals released from custody. This supervision may include enhanced physical and telephonic reporting and other methods of supervision such as use of ICE’s Alternatives to Detention Program.

Fifth, ICE will develop a capability to provide appropriate information regarding the release of individuals with criminal convictions to state law enforcement authorities in the relevant jurisdiction.

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2014, ICE booked-out of custody 30,558 individuals with criminal convictions. However, some of those convictions likely occurred after ICE made the required custody determination because ICE data systems reflect an individual’s criminal history on file at the time the data are retrieved. "While this number is down considerably from the 36,007 with criminal convictions released in Fiscal Year 2013, the number — which includes some with felony convictions -- still concerns me," said Director Saldaña. "Under Secretary Johnson’s leadership, we have made important reforms and I am determined to continue to take every possible measure to ensure the public’s safety and the removal of dangerous criminals ."

Notably, in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 the majority of releases of serious criminal offenders were made pursuant to federal court decisions or bond decisions by immigration judges. In a leading court case on immigration detention, Zadvydas v.

Davis, the Supreme Court ruled that ICE generally could not detain an individual ordered removed in immigration detention beyond six months, unless the individual would be repatriated in the reasonably foreseeable future. This detention limit can be triggered when a country simply refuses to accept repatriation of its national, irrespective of the individual’s criminal history.

ICE’s custody decisions for individuals in removal proceedings are also often reviewed by immigration judges who may set a bond amount that can result in release from ICE custody.

Other individuals, typically those associated with less serious offenses, are released as a discretionary matter or after posting a bond amount set by career ICE law enforcement officers. The decision to make a discretionary release, or to set bond, enables ICE to prioritize its resources, to detain and remove other individuals whom ICE deems to pose a greater risk to public safety or national security. ICE is committed to making certain that both mandatory and discretionary releases are executed in a way that promotes public safety and protects communities in accordance with existing law.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ic...determinations

ICE tightening process for releasing convicts from custody

2:39 p.m. Wednesday, March 18, 2015


Federal immigration authorities will give convicts more scrutiny before deciding to release them from custody under new policies the Obama administration announced Wednesday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will now require approval from top officials in ICE field offices before releasing people with convictions for two or more felonies or any single aggravated felony.

ICE will no longer cite a shortage of detention space as the determining factor for releasing people with serious criminal records. The federal agency has also set up a panel of senior managers to review decisions about releasing violent criminals.

Further, ICE is boosting its efforts to supervise those who have been released from custody. And it is working on a way to notify state law enforcement authorities about such releases.

In the fiscal year ending in September, federal immigration authorities released 30,558 people with criminal convictions.

That is down 15 percent from the year before, when 36,007 were released.

The majority of the releases during those two years were done in compliance with federal court rulings or bond decisions made by immigration judges, ICE said. The federal agency cited a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits ICE from indefinitely detaining people who cannot be deported. ICE is sometimes unable to deport people because their home countries refuse to take them back or delay issuing them travel documents.

“I am determined to do what we can to improve and reform our immigration system within the confines of existing law,” ICE Director Sarah Saldaña said in a prepared statement. “Today’s announcement is an example of this, and I believe it will enhance public safety and public confidence in our enforcement and administration of the immigration laws.”

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-r...ts-from/nkZDF/

Oh please, empty words to achieve the opposite of what ICE is paid to do. ICE is paid to keep illegal aliens out of the country and if they get in, remove them. There's 20 million or more illegal aliens in the country. Removing 30,000 convicted felons a year is nothing to that end. That's what you're supposed to do while at the same time removing the other 19,970,000. Face it, you can't do it, because you don't want to do it, and you're just wasting taxpayer money for not doing your jobs and now the country is so over-run with illegal aliens, you actually can't do it if you wanted to. That's why we need Trey Gowdy's bill that authorizes states and local law enforcement to enforce US immigration law. We need this bill passed by the Judiciary Committee and voted on by the House ASAP, then forwarded to the Senate and pushed as hard as you politicians can push.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

First, ICE is instituting enhanced supervisory approval for discretionary releases of certain categories of individuals with criminal convictions, including those convicted of two or more felonies or any single aggravated felony, by requiring that any such decision be approved by an Assistant Field Office Director, Deputy Field Office Director, or Field Office Director.

Why would we ever want to do anything other than move these people directly to federal prison, then directly to their home countries. And while we're waiting for them to be readied for "outsourcing," we could let their home governments know that trade and aid are dependent on their keeping their criminals at home.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Originally Posted by vistalad

Why would we ever want to do anything other than move these people directly to federal prison, then directly to their home countries. And while we're waiting for them to be readied for "outsourcing," we could let their home governments know that trade and aid are dependent on their keeping their criminals at home.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Exactly. All these traitors have to do is walk down to the Embassies of those countries and get these illegal aliens their passports to re-enter their own country. That is why countries have Embassies to begin with so their citizens can get a passport to re-enter their country. ICE should have been getting those lined up for these people when they were sent to jail, so it would be ready for them when they got out. And frankly as corrupt as DHS is, I doubt they've even tried to get them passports from the Embassies here in the states. It sounds like from their statements on this that they write some bureaucrat in the home country and wait for a reply. Really? Wait for a reply to the news that we're shipping a bunch of no good felons back to them? Did they write them in English or their native language? For all we know the bureaucrat is illiterate and can't even read in their native language, let alone in English. Or maybe it's just some bureaucrat who says "these stupid Americans, they let them in and give them jobs and let them run drugs and give them drivers licenses and announce their kids as US citizens, give them tax credits and welfare, and then when they find out they're just a bunch of no good crooks, thieves, liars, thugs, gang bangers, drug runners, pedophiles, drunks and murderers, oh NOW they want to ship them back, well I've got better things to do than deal with a bunch of dumb ass Americans about our no good felons that we were thrilled to learn had departed our nation to begin with."

And from that perspective, you can't blame these countries. However, it can't be tolerated. I'd arrange for the US Navy to drop them off at the edge of the nation's territorial waters in rubber rafts and call their President and let him/her know they have some citizens waiting to be picked up.