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05-29-2014, 12:18 PM #1
DHS head says Secure Communities Program should stay
DHS head says controversial program should stay
Johnson says Secure Communities is a 'very worthy' immigration enforcement program. | John Shinkle/POLITICO
CloseBy SEUNG MIN KIM | 5/29/14 12:03 PM EDT
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told lawmakers Thursday that a controversial immigration enforcement program should continue, but be revamped in order to run more effectively.
After signaling recently that the program, called Secure Communities, should get a “fresh look,” Johnson said Thursday that the administration is not seeking to dump the initiative altogether. The program calls on law enforcement to hand over fingerprints of people booked into local jails to federal immigration authorities.
“I don’t believe we should scrap Secure Communities,” Johnson told the House Judiciary Committee. “I believe, given the reality of where we are with this program in this country, that we need a fresh start.”
(Also on POLITICO: Child migrants a neglected challenge)
Johnson said the mission of Secure Communities is a “very worthy one that needs to continue.” But the program, which began under President George W. Bush and was expanded under President Barack Obama, has “gotten off to bad messaging, misunderstanding in state and local communities about exactly what it is.”
Immigration advocates have long slammed Secure Communities, arguing that it can invite racial profiling and make immigrants fearful of local law enforcement authorities. But Republicans and enforcement hawks have praised the program as an effective tool to identify undocumented immigrants.
But any significant administrative changes to immigration enforcement programs are likely to stoke outrage from congressional Republicans, who believe the Obama administration will pick and choose which immigration laws to enforce. That was a major focus of the hearing on Thursday, the first time that Johnson has testified before the Judiciary Committee.
(Also on POLITICO: On immigration, Cantor can't win)
Johnson’s “recent comments that he is considering scaling back one of DHS’s most successful programs to identify and remove dangerous aliens — Secure Communities — cause me grave concern for the future of immigration enforcement,” Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said.
The hearing comes as the Obama administration is undertaking a broad review of its immigration enforcement policies — an initiative announced after Obama came under fire from Latino and other immigrant-rights groups about the levels of deportations since he took office in 2009.
But administration officials said this week that Obama plans to delay releasing the results of the review until later this summer – a move that infuriated many immigration advocates who have long insisted that Obama has some discretion to provide relief from deportations without sign-off from Congress.
(Also on POLITICO: Deportation review delayed)
The delay is meant to give House Republican leaders room and space to craft and pass their own immigration proposal, although a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed the move.
Republicans have long said that the threat of unilateral action from Obama is counterproductive to progress on immigration reform.
“I and I think most members of Congress believe we need to do immigration reform as well,” Goodlatte said. “But it needs to be recognized by the president [and the administration] that when the president says that he’s going to set a time limit and then consider taking actions himself … that that makes doing immigration reform harder, not easier.”
In his opening remarks, Johnson gave few new details about the ongoing deportation review. He stressed that he is trying to meet with all parties, and said administrative action on deportations is not a substitute for legislation.
House Republicans, including Goodlatte, have seized on statistics from the Center for Immigration Studies — a think tank that favors stricter limits on immigration — that showed more than 36,000 immigrants here illegally with criminal convictions who were already in removal proceedings were released from custody.
Johnson told the committee that he is aware of the reports and said he has requested a “deeper understanding of this issue.” Still, he emphasized that many of those releases were ordered by immigration judges, or that those released would be monitored.
“Nevertheless, I intend to work with [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] leadership to determine whether we are doing everything we can to maximize public safety,” Johnson said.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...ry-107217.html
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05-29-2014, 03:12 PM #2
DHS Secretary Faces Tough Questioning on Release of Criminal Immigrants
by Caroline May 29 May 2014, 11:09 AM PDT
breitbart
Department of Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson was in the hot seat Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee, answering to the release of thousands of criminal aliens back into the United States.
“The end result of DHS’s practices is that the American people have lost all confidence in this Administration’s willingness to enforce our current immigration laws or use any enhanced enforcement tools that Congress may give it,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte said at the outset of Thursday’s hearing, highlighting the release of criminal immigrants. “This in turn has made it exceedingly difficult for Congress to fix our broken immigration system.”
Goodlatte went on to point out that there are currently 858,779 non-detained immigrants with final orders of removal who have not been removed and that the “vast majority” have absconded and become fugitives.
“Chairman, you are correct that there are a large number of undocumented in the country who are fugitives who had absconded after final orders of removal,” Johnson conceded. “I have heard the same numbers.”
Goodlatte highlighted the recent revelation that last year ICE released 36,007 criminal aliens in removal proceedings, convicted of crimes such as homicide, assault, kidnapping, and drunk driving. He also noted that ICE said many were released as a discretionary matter.
“I myself would like a deeper understanding of this issue. I have your letter on the subject and responded yesterday, I don't know whether you have received the response yet,” Johnson said.
The DHS secretary continued, saying that his current understanding is that a number of the FY 2013 releases “were as a result of orders from an immigration judge or by immigration officer acting pursuant to, consistent with Supreme Court precedent and other law.”
“Certainly there is an amount of judgment that goes into that so someone’s release, they are released pursuant to the conditions that are intended to guarantee their return,” he continued. “But I look at the same list you see and I see some pretty serious criminal convictions on that list including homicide and other things, and so I want a deeper understanding of this issue myself to ensure we are doing everything we should be doing to ensure public safety in this process.”
Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith added on, slamming the Obama administration for what could be considered "the worst prison break in American history, except it was sanctioned by the president and perpetrated by our own immigration officials” and ran through a list of what he said was the administration’s dilution of immigration law.
“If the president cannot be trusted to enforce current immigration laws how can he be trusted to enforce future immigration laws?” Smith asked rhetorically.
When Smith asked if Johnson could provide more details about the circumstances of the homicides committed by certain released immigrants, the DHS secretary said that he was not able at the time but will when he has such information.
“I’m interested in understanding further some of these more serious cases and I will share that information with you,” Johnson said.
Texas Republican Ted Poe pressed Johnson on the current status of the criminal immigrants — legal and illegal — released. to which Johnson responded that it really depends on each immigrant’s circumstance.
“If you’re released under some conditions of a crime, then that obviously changes the circumstances and you know somebody needs to reevaluate whether or not you should be running around on the streets,” Johnson said.
Johnson was additionally unable to respond to Poe’s and Florida Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis' questions pertaining to whether DHS has even requested that the State Department stop issuing visas to countries that do not take back their citizens the U.S. is trying to deport, but promised the committee he would provide more information about the last time the department requested such restrictions.
Virginia Republican Rep. Randy Forbes pushed Johnson for additional information about how many of the more than 36,000 criminal immigrants released were members of criminal gangs. Johnson was unable to offer how many but said he suspects that the department does probe those immigrants convicted of crimes about whether they are in gangs.
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05-29-2014, 03:57 PM #3
There's very little left to review. 'Bama is Mr. No Enforcement.
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05-29-2014, 06:20 PM #4NO AMNESTY
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05-29-2014, 06:44 PM #5NO AMNESTY
Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.
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05-29-2014, 11:07 PM #6
Johnson praises Secure Communities, says messaging is flawed
Two weeks after he said he was taking a "fresh look" at theSecure Communities program for immigration enforcement, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson stressed the importance of the program and attributed its woes to poor messaging...Fierce Homeland Security
7 hours agoWritten by
Zach RausnitzNO AMNESTY
Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.
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05-30-2014, 07:48 PM #7
More 'Bamacrat double speak. Translated into English, Johnson said, "We'll keep this this thing alive, so that the suckers don't catch on that it's just to keep them from bothering us with a lot of phone calls."
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Americans first in this magnificent country
American jobs for American workers
Fair trade, not free trade
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