ICE's failure endangers U.S. residents

Becky Yeh - OneNewsNow California correspondent - 2/17/2011 4:05:00 AMBookmark and Share

Illegal Immigration Road Sign bigA recent report indicated that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to identify almost 900 dangerous illegal convicts eligible for deportation, thus releasing them back into the United States.



According to CNSNews, in 2009 ICE did not identify 890 illegal criminals who were incarcerated in Texas and California. The convicts were guilty of level-one offenses, which include homicide, assault, and sex and drug offenses, among others. Although the criminals were a threat to public safety, they were not deported and were released back into society. The federal agency blamed the failure on a shortage of employees.

William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, tells OneNewsNow that when it comes to illegal immigration, national security should always be a top priority.

"The executive branch under [George W.] Bush and now [Barack] Obama is arguing that only this level of criminals should be removed after people have been killed, raped, or assaulted," Gheen states. "The existing border and immigration laws of the United States should be adequately enforced to prevent these crimes from happening against Americans or on American soil at all."

William Gheen (ALIPAC)Although Gheen believes deportation is a necessary element in enforcement, he explains that illegal convicts will not be stopped by deportation.

"They can walk right back in here," he laments. "The border is woefully unsecured -- I mean, it's not secured at all. There's nobody really being stopped -- there's people who are being delayed in getting into the United States, but they're not really stopping anybody."

As he has argued in the past, the ALIPAC president says the federal government must tighten the country's borders while enforcing existing immigration laws.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Security/Defa ... id=1295842