Thousands of DACA recipients with arrest records, including 10 accused murderers, ...
Thousands of DACA recipients with arrest records, including 10 accused murderers, allowed to stay in US
By Samuel Chamberlain | Fox News
1 hour ago
DHS: 13 percent of DACA recipients had arrest record
Exclusive: Agency releases never-before-seen data on DACA applicants; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Francis Cissna explains on 'Fox & Friends.'
EXCLUSIVE – Nearly 60,000 immigrants with arrest records -- including 10 accused of murder -- have been allowed to stay in the United States under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed Monday.
According to DHS, 59,786 DACA recipients have been arrested while in the U.S. -- approximately 7.8 percent of all who have been approved to remain in this country under the program since it was created in 2012. Of those, 53,792 were arrested before their most recent request for a so-called "grant of deferred action" was approved. Another 7,814 were arrested after their request was approved.
The DHS statistics do not indicate how many of the arrested immigrants were convicted of crimes, nor do they indicate whether charges were reduced or dropped. They also do not indicate how many arrested DACA recipients were deported as the result of a conviction.
Francis Cissna, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director, told “Fox & Friends" the agency wants to release as much data about DACA as possible for the public and lawmakers to be informed.
“I would like people to keep in mind . . . whatever they do, I would hope that we, at USCIS, would be able to turn down these people . . . if we think they’re a public safety threat . . . if someone is a gang member . . . even if they don’t have a conviction,” Cissna said.
Of the 53,792 DACA recipients with a "prior" arrest, more than 4,500 had been arrested on allegations of assault or battery; 830 arrests were related to sex crimes -- including rape, sexual abuse or indecent exposure; and 95 arrests were made on warrants for kidnapping, human trafficking or false imprisonment. Ten such arrests -- or 0.02 percent of all arrests -- were made in murder cases.
Approximately 38.9 percent of the DACA recipients with a "prior" arrest were accused of so-called "driving-related" offenses, excluding driving under the influence. Another 22.1 percent were accused of "immigration-related" crimes, while 12.3 percent were accused of theft and larceny. More than 4,600 DACA recipients have been accused of "drug-related" crimes, again excluding driving under the influence.
A DHS spokesman said the department was releasing the arrest data in response to inquiries "from Congress and others" for more detailed information on DACA recipients, including DACA criminal activities.
Under the terms of the program, immigrants are able to live and work in the U.S. for two years at a time before they must apply for a renewed "grant of deferred action." DHS says convictions for felonies, "significant misdemeanors," or at least three "non-significant misdemeanors" would "generally" result in removal from the program.
The arrest data has been made public as Congress prepares to consider a pair of immigration bills put forward by Republicans that contain provisions aimed at helping immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children.
“You could be arrested a whole lot of times and still get DACA," Cissna told "Fox & Friends" on Monday. "The data we’re putting out is only arrests, so presumably those people who had murder arrests, rape arrests -- that type of seriousness -- either got acquitted, charges were dropped or they plead something down, I would hope . . . there are a lot of crimes on the list we published that are misdemeanors – and they could've been convicted and still could’ve gotten DACA if they only had two of those misdemeanors.”
The current version of one of the bills, penned by conservative Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., would extend DACA protections for renewable six-year periods. Recipients could later apply for permanent residency and eventually citizenship. An expanded number of children who arrived legally with parents who have obtained work visas also would be covered.
President Trump announced this past September that he was ending the DACA program, though a series of federal court rulings has kept it functioning for the time being.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018...tay-in-us.html
DACA kids approved despite murder, rape and sex crimes arrests
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Monday, June 18, 2018
Ten people who’d been arrested on murder charges were nonetheless granted permission to remain and work in the U.S. under the Obama-era DACA amnesty, according to new government data released Monday.
Thirty-one “Dreamers” had rape charges on their records, nearly 500 had been accused of sex crimes, and more than 2,000 had been arrested for drunken driving — yet were approved for DACA status.
All told, 53,000 people who have been approved for DACA — 7 percent of the total — had a criminal record when the government granted them status. Nearly 8,000 racked up criminal charges after they’d been approved, according to the data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
DACA turned six years old on Friday and is back in the news as the House of Representatives begins to debate whether to grant a broad amnesty to Dreamers, and as courts across the country grapple with the legality of the 2012 program.
The new data will likely affect both the legislative and court action, since it gives some indications of the levels of screening, and waivers, the government is willing to offer for Dreamers who apply.
All told more than 888,000 people have applied for DACA status over the years. Of those, more than 770,000 were approved. Nearly 67,000 were rejected — and of those, about 31 percent had criminal records, the data show.
The new data looks at arrests.
DACA’s eligibility requirements, though, were written to focus on convictions.
Under the rules laid out by the Obama administration, which are unchanged under President Trump, someone with a felony conviction, a “significant” misdemeanor or three non-significant misdemeanors was supposed to be ineligible.
“You have to have a conviction. You can be arrested a whole lot of times and get DACA,” USCIS Director Francis Cissna told Fox News.
Many traffic offenses, including driving without a license, don’t count against someone applying for DACA.
In theory, any criminal history at all, even if it didn’t cross the conviction thresholds, could have led to a discretionary denial. But the number of people approved with lengthy records suggests that didn’t always happen.
Two dozen Dreamers won DACA despite having more than 10 arrests on their record. More than 1,200 others had been arrested between five and nine times.
The new data didn’t break down the arrests or approvals by year so it’s not clear how many Dreamers with major arrests were approved during the Obama administration and how many came under Mr. Trump
The House this week is slated to debate an immigration bill that would grant citizenship rights to those in the DACA program, as well as perhaps 1 million other illegal immigrants.
The bill, like the DACA program, relies on convictions rather than arrests, so the Dreamers with more than 10 arrests and those with rape, murder and sex crime arrests could be eligible.
The GOP bill also specifically allows illegal immigrants convicted of smuggling people into the U.S. — a felony charge — to claim citizenship.
The reason for that exception is not clear, though smuggling cartels had increasingly seemed to be recruiting DACA recipients as drivers to smuggle illegal immigrants, judging by a spate of arrests earlier this year.
In one case Alejandro Castro, guilty of smuggling in San Diego, was sentenced to time served.
The crime carries a penalty of up to 10 years.
In Arizona, Saul Rodea Castro pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served for smuggling four men from Mexico. He was the pickup man for a cartel that had arranged for the Mexicans to be smuggled across the border, at a cost of up to $8,000 per person.
In Texas DACA recipient David Luna-Martinez is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in April to carrying two illegal immigrants from Mexico for a smuggler.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...e-and-sex-cri/
