Fewer criminal undocumented immigrants are being deported by the administration than in 2014, new statistics released yesterday reveal. This seemingly undermines the justification for President Obama’s decision to take executive action on the issue of immigration reform, which he claimed was to prevent families being torn apart by unnecessary deportations.
The arrest and deportation rate of undocumented immigrant criminals has fallen by around 30% in 2015’s first fiscal six months, showing that agents have been unable to refocus on criminal illegal immigrants after receiving instructions to leave rank-and-file undocumented immigrants alone. Robert W Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, released the data at the beginning of a hearing with Sarah Saldana, the director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The data also shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement knowingly released 30,558 undocumented immigrant criminals last year, who between them had amassed almost 80,000 convictions including 186 abductions, 373 sexual assaults and no less than 250 murders. “The nonsensical actions of this administration demonstrate its lack of desire to enforce the law even against unlawful aliens convicted of serious crimes,” Goodlatte noted.
The White House claims that many of the releases stemmed from an old Supreme Court ruling that prevents immigrants being held on an indefinite basis, meaning they must be released if their home countries refuse to have them back; however, the House committee says this accounts for just 2,457 of the 30,000+ released.