Thread: SESSIONS REPORT DEMOLISHES OBAMA 'DEPORTER IN CHIEF' MYTH

SESSIONS REPORT DEMOLISHES OBAMA 'DEPORTER IN CHIEF' MYTH
by MATTHEW BOYLE
25 Mar 2014,

Fully 98 percent of individuals deported from the United States in 2013 were either criminals, apprehended while illegally crossing the border, or had been previously deported, according to a new analysis from Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL).

The three-page document, labeled a “Critical Alert” by the senator’s office, found three executive actions by President Barack Obama providing amnesty to groups of illegal aliens meant that virtually no one who did not meet other criteria beyond simply being in the country illegal was deported.

“The evidence reveals that the Administration has carried out a dramatic nullification of federal law,” Sessions said in a statement to Breitbart News. “Under the guise of setting ‘priorities’, the Administration has determined that almost anyone in the world who can enter the United States is free to illegally live, work and claim benefits here as long as they are not caught committing a felony or other serious crime.

Obama's well-known executive action granted virtual amnesty to so-called DREAMers – individuals who claim to have entered the country as minors under their parents' guidance.

Two are lesser known executive actions include an Aug. 23, 2013, DHS directive “expanding that [summer 2012 executive DREAM Act] amnesty to illegal immigrant relatives of DREAM Act beneficiaries” and a Dec. 21, 2012, DHS directive “reinforcing that almost all immigration offenses were unenforceable absent a separate criminal conviction.”

In 2013, Sessions’ staff found, 98 percent of ICE’s removals of illegal aliens fit the agency’s “enforcement criteria.” There are four such criteria for illegal aliens to be considered deportation-worthy by ICE: a conviction of committing a serious criminal offense, an apprehension made while an individual is crossing the border, the resurfacing of someone previously deported, or someone having been a fugitive from the law. “Remarkably, the first two categories—border apprehensions (which are not deportations as commonly understood) and convicted criminals—account for 94% of the 368,000 removals (235,000 and 110,000, respectively),” Sessions’ staff wrote in the memo.

Only 0.2 percent of an estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the U.S. who were actually placed into removal proceedings in 2013 in 2013 did not have a violent or otherwise serious criminal conviction on their record. Only .08 percent of the total number of illegal aliens placed into removal proceedings were neither repeat or serial immigration law violators nor convicted of a serious crime. Even with that .08 percent of removals who were not caught crossing the border or being a serial immigration law violator or being convicted of serious crimes, Sessions’ staff notes that ICE officers who communicate with his office say that there is likely some other serious security risk for allowing them to stay in the country that is cause for their removal.

The findings stand in stark contrast to liberal calls on Obama to reduce deportations. Top Hispanic Democrats recently met with Obama at the White House recently about the issue, prompting an announcement about a review at the Department of Homeland Security about how to deport illegal aliens in a more “humane” fashion.

The report was enough to prompt a chorus of outrage from Sessions' like-minded colleagues in the House, who slammed the Obama administration for enacting amnesty by fiat.

“This is another clear warning to anyone who thinks immigration reform is possible under President Obama,” said Rep. John Fleming (R-LA). “He has repeatedly shown a willingness to enforce the law selectively, while looking the other way when it doesn't fit his agenda.”

“We can add immigration enforcement to the long list of areas where President Obama is selectively enforcing the law,” Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) told Breitbart News in response to Sessions’ new report. “This is part of a repeated pattern of overreach on the part of the Administration and shows their unwillingness to follow the law as it is written—not the law as they want it to be. It’s impossible for Congress to have an open and honest debate on border security when we can’t trust the President to do his job.”

“At least 99.92% of illegal immigrants and visa overstays without known crimes on their records did not face removal,” Sessions’ staff wrote. “Those who do not facially meet the Administration’s select ‘priorities’ are free to illegally work in the United States and to receive taxpayer benefits, regardless of whether or not they come into contact with immigration enforcement.”

Sessions’ staff cites August 2013 reports from an ICE raid at Danny’s Car Wash in Phoenix, Arizona, where many workers suspected of being in the country illegally were taken into custody but released shortly thereafter. “Workers suspected of being in the country illegally were taken into custody, but [ICE spokeswoman Amber] Cargile said they would be released within a matter of hours as long as they had no outstanding criminal records,” the Associated Press wrote then.

In another incident in Brownsville, Texas, a dozen illegal aliens were set free at a bus station after being taken into ICE custody because the federal immigration law agency said it “doesn’t consider the group a major threat to our safety.”

Sessions’ staff also cites a 2011 instance where authorities at ICE warned one of their officers he would be subject to disciplinary action if he followed through with his intent to enforce the law by issuing a Notice to Appear in court to an illegal alien “driving the vehicle of a known fugitive without a license.”

“The suspect, who had multiple misdemeanor offenses on his record, was released while the ICE officer was threatened with suspension,” Sessions’ staff wrote.

“The Obama administration’s subversion of the Constitution and the rule of law make enforcement of our immigration laws virtually impossible,” Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) said in an email. “The law-abiding and taxpaying Americans who oppose this executive amnesty policy are paying the price with lower wages and fewer job opportunities.”

“At the same time President Obama hypocritically tells people he is for income equality, he violates federal immigration law, floods the labor market with wage-suppressing illegal aliens, and destroys the chance millions of hard-working Americans have of attaining self-sufficiency and the American dream,” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) said. “It is clear that President Obama believes it is more important to pander to voters based on race than it is to enforce immigration laws that protect American workers’ ability to earn a living wage.”

Brooks and Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar said the findings raise grave questions of constitutional law.

”Perhaps the most important role of the President is defined in Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution, which states that the President ‘shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’” Gosar said in reaction to Sessions’ new report. “From President Obama’s capricious ObamaCare delays to his arbitrary refusal to enforce current immigration laws, his transgressions against the Constitution are egregious and must stop. The first step in restoring the rule of law is holding Attorney General Eric Holder – our nation’s chief law enforcement officer – accountable for allowing and participating in the Administration’s blatant disregard for the Constitution.”

“The President should be ashamed of himself for violating his oath of office, violating his Constitutional duty to enforce America’s laws, and making illegal aliens a higher priority than the livelihoods of hard-working Americans,” Brooks said.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...-In-Chief-Myth

Report: Great majority of illegal immigrants immune from deportation due to Obama’s ‘priorities’

03/26/2014

Caroline May
Political Reporter

The Obama administration’s immigration polities have provided a de facto amnesty for most of the illegal immigrants living in the United States, according to Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions.

“Under the guise of setting ‘priorities,’ the Administration has determined that almost anyone in the world who can enter the United States is free to illegally live, work and claim benefits here as long as they are not caught committing a felony or other serious crime,” Sessions said Wednesday in conjunction with a three-page report, obtained by The Daily Caller, detailing the administration’s immigration “lawlessness.”

Sessions’ three-pager labeled “DHS Enforcement Data Reveals Administrative Amnesty Much Broader Than Previously Understood” shows even future visa overstays and illegal immigrants will not face any repercussions.

“[A] review of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICS) published enforcement statistics for 2013 reveals a shocking truth: DHS has blocked the enforcement of immigration law for the overwhelming majority of violations — and is planning to widen that amnesty even further,” the document reads.

The review of the 2013 ICE data revealed that less than 0.2 percent of the approximately 12 million illegal immigrants and visa overstays who were not convicted of a serious criminal offense were placed in removal proceedings. Further, merely .08 percent of the 12 million who were not convicted of a serious crime or a repeat immigration offender were placed in removal proceedings.

Thus, 99.92 percent of illegal immigrants and visa overstays without serious crime convictions or repeat immigration offenses did not face deportation.
The report recalled two 2013 local news reports — one from Arizona, the other fromTexas — about ICE simply releasing illegal immigrant workers “because they did not have known outstanding warrants or criminal convictions” and were therefore considered low priority.

“Instances like these are not the exception, but the rule. DHS has decided that the Administration’s ‘priorities’ trump the immigration laws passed by Congress,” the report reads. “The Administration’s priorities have therefore provided an executive amnesty not only to the great majority of the 12 million living here illegally today (including even the most recent arrivals) but to those who will violate immigration law tomorrow. It is an open invitation for a future immigrant to overstay a visa, or to enter the U.S. illegally, knowing that they will be immune from enforcement as long as they avoid being convicted of a felony or other serious crime once here.”

According to the document, this “free pass” applies to illegal immigrants even if they have a criminal record — so long as that record does not meet the level of an agency “priority.”

“In effect, DHS has ordered ICE to largely abandon crime prevention and to wait until after a serious criminal offense has occurred, a conviction has been obtained, and a prison sentence has been served at taxpayer expense — and to only take action subsequent to the offense by providing shuttle transport to the airport,” the report reads. “Much of ICE’s operation has been reduced to transporting convicted felons from prisons to planes.”

And while the number of illegal immigrants deported due to their illegality is already very small, the document argues that fraction is about to get even smaller due to the administration’s “enforcement review.”

“DHS is considering exempting even some of the most habitual immigration violators and fugitives, offering near enforcement immunity to any illegal immigrant who does not commit a felony or other grave offense,” it reads.

The report concludes by calling the Obama administration’s actions “breathtaking and without precedent.”

“American citizens have both a legal and moral right to the protection our immigration laws afford; those rights have been systemically ignored, resulting in a massive loss of income and wages for the most vulnerable Americans. The Administration has abandoned its duty to faithfully execute the law and protect U.S. sovereignty, resulting not only in a collapse of immigration enforcement but a grave jeopardy to the American system of law and justice itself.”

Sessions added that he will be sharing more information about the administration’s lack of enforcement, in response to its decision to expand their “unlawful directives” further.

“American workers and taxpayers are entitled to the protections our immigration laws afford, yet the Administration has suspended these protections, producing lower wages and higher unemployment,” he said. “Congressional Democrats have empowered this state of lawlessness. It falls on the shoulders of Republicans to reverse it — and to rescue the rule of law for the American people of today and tomorrow.”
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/26/je...on-priorities/

Added first article to the Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/content.php?r=2...-IN-CHIEF-MYTH

National Review Institute
March 26, 2014 4:00 AM
By Alec Torres

Obama Exempts Illegals from Immigration Laws

DHS deports barely any illegals without separate criminal convictions.

A little-known Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directive from 2012 has dramatically altered the enforcement of immigration laws by shielding most illegal immigrants without separate criminal convictions from deportation.

Data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reviewed by the office of Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), indicate that the “DHS has blocked the enforcement of immigration law for the overwhelming majority of violations — and is planning to widen that amnesty even further.”

A DHS directive from December 21, 2012, decreed that ICE agents could act against illegal immigrants only in limited circumstances — mainly if an illegal immigrant was previously charged with a serious crime or was physically caught crossing the border.

The effect, according to Sessions’s office, has been that many habitual immigration violators and the vast majority of illegal immigrants in the United States face no threat of deportation. “The Administration’s priorities,” Session’s writes, “have therefore provided an executive amnesty not only to the great majority of the 12 million living her illegally today . . . but to those who will violate immigration law tomorrow. It is an open invitation for a future immigrant to overstay a visa, or enter the U.S. illegally, knowing that they will be immune from enforcement as long as they avoid being convicted of a felony or other serious crime once here.”

In Texas, for example, ICE routinely releases immigrants who are not considered a threat to safety. In 2011, an ICE officer was reportedly told that he would face disciplinary action for attempting to issue a Notice to Appear to an illegal immigrant. “Instances like these are not the exception, but the rule,” Session writes. “DHS has decided that the Administration’s ‘priorities’ trump the immigration laws passed by Congress.”

The results of this directive can be seen in an ICE report on 2013 removals, which details that 98 percent of the removals were of “convicted criminals, recent border crossers, illegal re-entrants or those previously removed by ICE, in line with agency’s enforcement priorities.”

Sessions calculates that “less than 0.2 percent of the approximately twelve million illegal immigrants and visa overstays in the U.S. were placed into removal proceedings who did not have serious criminal convictions on their record.” Of the estimated 368,000 removals in 2013 (from both within and on the border of the United States), only 10,000, or just around 2.7 percent, were removed having not committed an additional serious offense or a felony.

“In effect, DHS has ordered ICE to largely abandon crime prevention and to wait until after a serious criminal offense has occurred, a conviction has been obtained, and a prison sentence has been served at taxpayer expense,” Session says. “The Administration has abandoned its duty to faithfully execute the law and protect U.S. sovereignty.”