Thread: Obama can’t round up enough illegals to fill detention quotas required by law

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Wednesday, February 25, 2015

The administration this year hasn't been able to find enough illegal immigrants to fill the 34,000 detention beds the law requires, as President Obama's new policies kick in and agents spend more time and money going after each immigrant they do detain.

As of Jan. 25, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was averaging just 27,000 detainees a day for fiscal 2015, which began Oct. 1. That means more than 20 percent of its capacity was going unused so far this year — even as the administration faces questions over immigrants it has released, who have gone on to commit crimes later.

Deportations are also down dramatically, according to Jessica Vaughan, who studies enforcement trends for the Center for Immigration Studies, and who told Congress on Wednesday that the administration deported fewer than 20,000 immigrants in December, which is about 50 percent lower than its usual pace for the month over the last few years.

"All of the significant metrics of enforcement activity tracked by ICE — encounters, arrests, detainers and charging documents issued — show declines in recent years," Ms. Vaughan said in prepared testimony for the House oversight committee.

ICE is the interior enforcement and deportation arm of the Homeland Security Department. Mr. Obama last year ordered the department to stop trying to apprehend and deport most illegal immigrants, saying that unless they have a serious criminal record or crossed the border since Jan. 1, 2014, they aren't important enough to be worth the expense of deportation.

Ms. Vaughan said the detention beds are a major issue since it means ICE is releasing some illegal immigrants to be out in the community even as they are awaiting deportation, giving them a chance to abscond — and often to commit crimes while out on the streets.

Congress has mandated that ICE have an average daily population, or ADP, of 34,000 beds available on any day to hold illegal immigrants, but Ms. Vaughan said the administration has shown an "unwillingness" to follow through on actually keeping them.

Both ICE and a key lawmaker contend that while Congress mandates 34,000 beds, not all of them need to be filled.

And the agency says it won't end up paying for all of the unused beds at the end of the year, saying some of the beds it contracts for are handled by a "pay as you use" method.

"In the event that ICE does not meet the 34,000 ADP, ICE will adjust the facility usage so that the facilities with fixed monthly rates are used to their maximum capacity which in turn, reduces the use of the 'pay as you use' facilities," an agency official said.

ICE blamed several issues for the lack of illegal immigrants to fill the beds, including the rising costs of handling them. Part of that is because some state and local government agencies now refuse to cooperate with federal agents, releasing illegal immigrants from prisons and jails rather than holding them for ICE to come pick up.

"The arrest of an individual where ICE's detainer was not honored may take 30 to 40 man hours since ICE officers must track down the individual and make the arrest out in the community," an agency official told The Washington Times. "This greatly increases officer and public safety risks as well as greatly decreasing agency efficiency."

In 2014, local governments refused to hold 12,175 immigrants that ICE had requested be kept for pickup, the agency said.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said Mr. Obama has "gutted" interior enforcement of immigration laws, and said part of the problem is that the administration won't put pressure on the states that are refusing to cooperate with federal agents. Mr. Obama also canceled the Secure Communities program that automatically checked state and local inmates against federal databases to see if they should be picked up for deportation.

"As a result of these foolish polices, the number of unlawful or criminal aliens that ICE has removed from the interior of the country has fallen by more than half since 2008," Mr. Goodlatte said.

At a hearing before the oversight committee Tuesday morning, relatives of victims who died at the hands of illegal immigrants testified about the pain.

Michael Ronnebeck, uncle of Grant Ronnebeck, said his nephew was killed by an illegal immigrant holding up a Quiktrip store in Arizona. The man accused of the killing, Apolinar Altamirano, had been in ICE custody after a previous 2012 arrest, and was awaiting a deportation, but had been released because the government didn't deem him a threat, Mr. Ronnebeck said.

"In the two years since then, while awaiting his deportation hearing, Altamirano has had two orders of protection filed against him, including one from a woman who claimed he threatened to kill her, and pointed a gun at her boyfriend," Mr. Ronnebeck said. "The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was notified of the protection orders by a Mesa Superior Court judge. Altamirano was still allowed to be free in our country."

Sacramento (Calif.) County Sheriff Scott Jones told the committee that ICE used to demand that localities hold illegal immigrants for deportation, but under Mr. Obama the agency no longer considers its detainers mandatory, so states and localities now feel free to ignore them.

While illegal immigrants who show up for their trial and are convicted of new crimes are still able to be apprehended, those at the beginning of the criminal process who are arrested are usually released before ICE can get to them.

"According to ICE officials, in-custody arrests are down 95 percent from just a year ago," the sheriff said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...on-beds-empty/

ICE blamed several issues for the lack of illegal immigrants to fill the beds, including the rising costs of handling them. Part of that is because some state and local government agencies now refuse to cooperate with federal agents, releasing illegal immigrants from prisons and jails rather than holding them for ICE to come pick up.

"The arrest of an individual where ICE's detainer was not honored may take 30 to 40 man hours since ICE officers must track down the individual and make the arrest out in the community," an agency official told The Washington Times. "This greatly increases officer and public safety risks as well as greatly decreasing agency efficiency."

In 2014, local governments refused to hold 12,175 immigrants that ICE had requested be kept for pickup, the agency said.

Oh, isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black! You said in a lawsuit that went before the US Supreme Court, that only the federal government is responsible for enforcing US immigration law. Now, you're blaming your failure on the states for not doing your job for you. Oh, you rat headed morons make me want to puke. They were in jail when you issued the detainer, you no good frigging idiots, it was your job to go pick them up immediately. You sit around in your cush office space living your high flying lifestyles on the government dole taking 30 to 60 or more days to get your asses over to the local jail and pick up your federal criminal, then blame the states because they decided to clear out a cell for one of their local and state criminals.

Just admit it, you're on the take with the cartels knowing full well when these criminals are going to be released from local and state prisons, and you do this deliberately, because with $100 billion a year at your disposal, you should be picking up hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens every day, processing them immediately through the "immigration courts" as swift as a parking ticket, and hauling their asses out of here the day of the deportation order. You're a worthless useless agency that not only isn't doing its job, it's conspiring with the cartels not to do it.

You think we're stupid? Well, we may have been uninformed there for awhile, but get this, you rotten pond scum, we're not uninformed any more. We've got your number and are voting and lobbying accordingly which means you all better update those resumes because the pink slips are going to flying into DHS in droves.

Congress, get off your asses and pass Trey Gowdy or Marsha Blackburn's bill that acknowledges and authorizes states rights to enforce US immigration law. and do it now.

Originally Posted by Judy

Oh, isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black! You said in a lawsuit that went before the US Supreme Court, that only the federal government is responsible for enforcing US immigration law. Now, you're blaming your failure on the states for not doing your job for you. Oh, you rat headed morons make me want to puke. They were in jail when you issued the detainer, you no good frigging idiots, it was your job to go pick them up immediately. You sit around in your cush office space living your high flying lifestyles on the government dole taking 30 to 60 or more days to get your asses over to the local jail and pick up your federal criminal, then blame the states because they decided to clear out a cell for one of their local and state criminals.

Just admit it, you're on the take with the cartels knowing full well when these criminals are going to be released from local and state prisons, and you do this deliberately, because with $100 billion a year at your disposal, you should be picking up hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens every day, processing them immediately through the "immigration courts" as swift as a parking ticket, and hauling their asses out of here the day of the deportation order. You're a worthless useless agency that not only isn't doing its job, it's conspiring with the cartels not to do it.

You think we're stupid? Well, we may have been uninformed there for awhile, but get this, you rotten pond scum, we're not uninformed any more. We've got your number and are voting and lobbying accordingly which means you all better update those resumes because the pink slips are going to flying into DHS in droves.

Congress, get off your asses and pass Trey Gowdy or Marsha Blackburn's bill that acknowledges and authorizes states rights to enforce US immigration law. and do it now.

WELL SAID YOU TELL IT LIKE,IT YOU WRITE A GOOD POST VERY GOOD TY

Originally Posted by Judy

Oh, isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black! You said in a lawsuit that went before the US Supreme Court, that only the federal government is responsible for enforcing US immigration law. Now, you're blaming your failure on the states for not doing your job for you. Oh, you rat headed morons make me want to puke. They were in jail when you issued the detainer, you no good frigging idiots, it was your job to go pick them up immediately. You sit around in your cush office space living your high flying lifestyles on the government dole taking 30 to 60 or more days to get your asses over to the local jail and pick up your federal criminal, then blame the states because they decided to clear out a cell for one of their local and state criminals.

Just admit it, you're on the take with the cartels knowing full well when these criminals are going to be released from local and state prisons, and you do this deliberately, because with $100 billion a year at your disposal, you should be picking up hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens every day, processing them immediately through the "immigration courts" as swift as a parking ticket, and hauling their asses out of here the day of the deportation order. You're a worthless useless agency that not only isn't doing its job, it's conspiring with the cartels not to do it.

You think we're stupid? Well, we may have been uninformed there for awhile, but get this, you rotten pond scum, we're not uninformed any more. We've got your number and are voting and lobbying accordingly which means you all better update those resumes because the pink slips are going to flying into DHS in droves.

Congress, get off your asses and pass Trey Gowdy or Marsha Blackburn's bill that acknowledges and authorizes states rights to enforce US immigration law. and do it now.

WTG JUDY
I SAY THE SAME THING GET OFF YOUR ASS