Thread: ICE Document Details 36,000 Criminal Alien Releases in 2013

by Caroline May 12 May 2014, 2:26 PM PDT
breitbart



A murder or assault conviction is no guarantee an immigrant will be deported or even remain in detention, an internal Department of Homeland Security document reveals.

According to the document, obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies and shared with Breitbart News Monday, last year the Obama administration released 36,007 immigrants convicted of a nearly 88,000 crimes, including homicide and sexual assault.

To be sure, these statistics include prior offenses, for which the convicted alien could have previously served time.

Some of the most striking crimes, however, included 193 homicide convictions (including the murder of a public official), 426 sexual assault convictions, 9,187 dangerous drugs convictions, 1,075 aggravated assault convictions, and 228 kidnapping convictions.

The categories with the greatest number of convictions were traffic offenses 17,228, followed by convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs with 16,070.

(See the complete list of convictions at the bottom of this article.)

The method of release for these criminal aliens included bond, order of recognizance, order of supervision, a detention alternative, and parole.

According to a CIS report released Monday, the internal document was prepared by ICE to respond to a congressional inquiry pressing the agency on data from a March report from the CIS dealing with the 68,000 criminal aliens ICE encountered and subsequently released in 2013.

Jessica Vaughan, the Director of Policy Studies at CIS and author of Monday's report, noted the 36,007 criminal aliens spelled out in the new internal document are a separate category from the 68,000 criminal aliens ICE encountered and released without filing immigration charges, spelled out in CIS’s earlier report.

“These figures suggest that despite claims of a focus on public safety, the administration's prosecutorial discretion criteria are allowing factors such as family relationships, political considerations, or attention from advocacy groups to trump criminal convictions as a factor leading to deportation,” the March report read.

The 36,007 criminal aliens highlighted in this most recent document, according to Vaughan, were individuals who were being processed for deportation and released prior or after the conclusion of their deportation cases.

In her Monday report, Vaughan noted that she has separate information showing that the majority of the releases were "discretionary" and "even contrary to the requirements of various provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act."

"Only a small share of these criminal aliens (fewer than 3,000) were released in accordance with a 2001 Supreme Court decision, Zadvydas v. Davis, which prevents ICE from indefinitely detaining certain aliens whose countries will not accept them back... Another small number may have been offered parole or legal status, either in exchange for their cooperation with ICE or another law enforcement agency in connection with a criminal prosecution, or because of another compelling public interest," she wrote.

News of these releases come following President Obama’s March directive to DHS for a review of his administration’s immigration enforcement policies, specifically deportation, seeking a manner of enforcement “more humanely within the confines of the law.”

In April, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 21 Republican senators accused Obama of trying to further weaken immigration law with the review.

“Clearly, the urgent task facing your administration is to improve immigration enforcement, not to look for new ways to weaken it,” they wrote. “Since 2009, your administration has issued policy directives and memoranda incrementally nullifying immigration enforcement in the interior of the United States — to the point that unless individuals in the country illegally are apprehended, tried, and convicted for a felony or other serious offense, they are free to live and work in the country.”

Vaughan concluded of the new document, "This information is sure to raise concerns that, despite professions of a focus on removal of criminal aliens, Obama administration policies frequently have allowed political considerations to trump public safety factors and, as a result, aliens with serious criminal convictions have been allowed to return to the streets instead of being removed to their home countries."

ICE could not immediately comment but told Breitbart News they are looking into the CIS report.

Full list of crimes:

Traffic Offense-Traffic Offense 17,228

Traffic Offense-Driving Under Influence Liquor 15,635

Dangerous Drugs 9,187

Larceny 5,055

Immigration 3,958

Obstructing Judiciary, Congress, Legislature, etc.3,245

General Crimes 2,867

Assault 2,691

Public Peace 2,608

Burglary 2,510

Fraudulent Activities 2,394

Obstructing the Police 2,104

Weapon Offenses 1,724

Domestic Violence 1,317

Battery 1,267

Invasion of Privacy 1,249

Forgery 1,216

Stolen Vehicle 1,160

Stolen Property 1,131

Family Offenses 1,099

Assault – Aggravated Assault 1,075

Robbery 790

Sex Offenses (not involving Assault or Commercialized Sex) 727

Damage Property 725

Traffic Offense-Hit and Run 647

Commercialized Sexual Offenses 606

Liquor 447

Traffic Offense-Driving Under Influence Drugs 435

Sexual Assault 426

Health/Safety 425

Simple Assault 395

Flight Escape 303

Kidnapping 228

Threat 167

Intimidation 141

Homicide 116

Gambling 62

Extortion 53

Juvenile Offenders 52

Embezzlement 51

Conservation 49

Arson 47

Tax Revenue 36

Smuggling 26

Homicide – Negligent Manslaughter-Vehicle 24

Obscenity 21

Homicide – Negligent Manslaughter-Weapon 19

Bribery 15

Voluntary-Manslaughter 14

Traffic Offense-Transporting Dangerous Material 11

Homicide-Willful Kill-Gun 10

Homicide-Willful Kill-Weapon 9

Homicide-Willful Kill-Non-Family-Weapon 6

Homicide-Willful Kill-Non-Family-Gun 5

Sovereignty-Treason, Sabotage 4

Homicide-Willful Kill-Family-Gun 2

Abortion-Abortifacient (selling, manufacturing, delivering, etc.) 1

Military-Military Desertion 1

Homicide-Willful Kill-Family-Weapon 1

Homicide-Willful Kill-Public Official-Gun 1

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...nvicts-in-2013

by Caroline May 12 May 2014, 4:23 PM PDT
breitbart



House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith expressed outrage at a new report detailing the 36,007 convicted criminal immigrants released back into the United States last year.

“Regardless of one’s position on the larger immigration reform question, it’s incredibly alarming that tens of thousands of convicted criminal aliens – including hundreds of murderers, kidnappers, and rapists – who were processed for deportation are being freed into our communities by the Obama Administration,” Goodlatte and Smith said in a joint statement Monday.

“The truth is that most could be detained by immigration enforcement authorities if the Administration had the will to do so. These criminals should be locked up, not roaming our streets,” they added.

Monday the Center for Immigration Studies released a report detailing data from an internal document, breaking down the 36,007 released criminal immigrants' nearly 88,000 convictions – including 193 homicide convictions, 16,070 drunk or drugged driving convictions, 9,187 dangerous drug convictions, and 426 sexual assault convictions.

“Unfortunately, history tells us that many will go on to become fugitives from the law and commit additional crimes against American citizens and law-abiding immigrants. We must hold the Department of Homeland Security accountable for its actions and make sure it does everything possible to protect U.S. citizens from dangerous criminal aliens,” the pair said.

In April the House Judiciary Committee pressed DHS for the information contained in the report, following up on an earlier inquiry Smith made in February. According to the committee DHS has yet to respond to their April letter.

“This information is important to inform Congress about the problem of criminal aliens so that we make the right policy decisions moving forward,” Goodlatte and Smith said. “The Committee plans to hold an oversight hearing on DHS in the coming weeks and will expect Secretary Johnson to come clean and provide the Committee with answers to our questions.”

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Lamar Smith Calls ICE Release of 36,000 Criminal Immigrants a President-Sanctioned Prison Break

by Caroline May 13 May 2014, 6:15 AM PDT
breitbart



Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith reacted harshly to a new report detailing the crimes committed by 36,007 criminal immigrants that Immigration and Customs Enforcement released last year.

“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. These criminal immigrants should have been deported to ensure that they could never commit crimes on U.S. soil. But instead, ICE officials chose not to detain them and instead released them back onto American streets,” Smith said in a statement Monday.

An internal Department of Homeland Security document obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies, a limited immigration group, and shared with Breitbart News Monday revealed that last year ICE released 36,007 criminal immigrants who had nearly 88,000 convictions.

The document further broke down the crimes and number of convictions – including 193 homicide convictions, 426 sexual assault convictions, 303 kidnapping convictions, and 1,075 aggravated assault convictions.

CIS detailed the document’s findings in a report Monday morning, explaining that ICE prepared the document in response to congressional inquiries seeking additional information about the number of criminal aliens released into the United States and the crimes for which they were convicted.

Smith was one of the members of Congress who pressed DHS for these answers.

The congressman actually did receive a response from DHS earlier this year explaining that ICE did release 36,007 criminal aliens. DHS also included a breakdown of the kinds of offenses but did not include the number of offenses per type of crime.

“Obama administration officials want the American people to think these individuals were guilty of minor, petty offenses,” Smith said. “But the convictions tell a chilling story. Among those released were criminal immigrants convicted of murder, rape, kidnapping, drunk driving, and aggravated assault.”

The Texas congressman added that immigration reform should be off the table until laws currently on the books are enforced.

“There should be no discussion of reforming our nation’s immigration laws until the President enforces the laws currently on the books. The safety of the American people should be the President’s top priority. We need a President who follows the law and deports criminal immigrants who violate our laws and endanger our lives.”

ICE has not responded to the CIS report, but told Breitbart News Monday morning they are looking into it.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...d-prison-break