Thread: ICE question of the day for Tuesday, July 29

ICE question of the day for Tuesday, July 29




Heat from Fox 4 viewers has finally broken loose some answers from ICE. Over the past few days you have been inundating the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, demanding more answers than ICE has given us in the Abel Arango case. Most of you are wanting to know why Arango, a Cuban criminal under a deportation order, was allowed to roam the streets, where he eventually shot and killed Fort Myers police officer Andrew Widman. And you are wanting to know why ICE decisionmakers are hiding from our cameras.

The bad news is, no one at ICE has worked up the courage to come out from behind their desks and secure compounds and face our cameras. So we can't bring their comments to you face to face and person to person. But today Washington-based press secretary Kelly Nantel did respond, in writing, to a list of questions Fox 4 sent her last week. Fox 4 reporter Erica Pitzi will summarize the highlights tonight at 10 (Tuesday, July 29). (Headline hint: there are a LOT more potential Abel Arangos out there). In addition, over the next few days, Fox 4 will present one question every day from our list, and give ICE's response. Due to the time-constrained nature of television, the "ICE Question of the Day" segment on our newscast will provide only the gist of ICE's response. But here on our website, we'll give you the whole response, word for word, to each day's question.

In addition, we have something else planned. Like most news organizations, Fox 4 makes no judgments about whether government actions are good, bad or indifferent. But there is one exception. In our Viewers' Bill of Rights, we state our belief that public officials have a duty to answer public questions about the public's business. When they don't, it's our duty to call them on it. So, after presenting the question of the day, we'll give you the assessment of the Fox 4 reporting and editorial team about whether ICE's response addresses the question. We'll use a 10 point scale, with a nine meaning ICE's response fully answered the question, and a zero indicating ICE ignored the question or fully deflected it.

Today's question:
"How many other convicted or suspected alien felons are on U.S. streets now because of the difficulty of deporting them?"

Ice's Answer (from press secretary Kelly Nantel):
"The following are the available statistics I was able to obtain for you:
There have been 419 (263 criminal and 156 non-criminal) who have been removed to Cuba since the formation of ICE. In addition, there have been 5,651 Cuban nationals released from detention since 2001. How many Cuban nationals have final orders of removal? How many are criminal and how many are non-criminal? There are 29,494 Cuban nationals with final orders of removal, of which 21,228 have criminal records and 8,266 are non-criminals."
In other words, in its history ICE has succeeded in deporting just 263 Cuban criminals. More than 21,000 are still here.

Fox 4 ICE Responsiveness rating: 8
We took off one point because our question was about all aliens, not just Cubans. But we give ICE credit for answering the spirit of the question. (Note: the question about Cuban nationals contained in Nantel's response was not on our original list; we're guessing she inserted that as a logical follow-up).

If you have an opinion about the facts as we've reported them, here's how to express them:

Feedback to ICE:

Julie Myers
Assistant Secretary
e-mail: julie.myers@dhs.gov
Phone (during regular business hours): 202 514 1900

Feedback to our federal lawmakers:

U.S. Senator Bill Nelson
(D-Florida)
Phone: 202-224-5274
Email: http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

U.S. Senator Mel Martinez
(R-Florida)
202-224-3041
Email: http://martinez.senate.gov/public/index ... FID=987249

U.S. Rep. Connie Mack
(R-District 14)
202-225-2536
Email: http://mack.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAct ... ontactForm

U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney
(D-District 16)
202 225-5792
Email: http://www.house.gov/formmahoney/issue_subscribe.htm

Feedback to Fox 4

news@fox4now.com
Or click this link for Viewers' Voice

http://www.fox4now.com/Global/story.asp?S=8754932

Julie Myers biggest problem is that she only addressed Cubans. What about the Guatemalans, Mexicans, Haitians, Nigerians, those from former communist countries, Asians, and whomever lands on these shores, legally or illegally. And this is the federal government supposed to protect us from threats? Florida has more problems with illegals than just Cubans.