The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analyzed data from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) to show that criminal prosecutions for immigration offenses have dropped 36% over the last five years and due to sanctuary cities policies, the detention of illegal aliens in jails is down by two-thirds.
According to the TRAC report criminal prosecution for immigration offenses fell 22.3% from November 2014 to November 2015. The report also showed that the top criminal prosecution charge was "reentry by a deported alien."
The TRAC detainer report shows the impact that sanctuary cities have had on ICE’s ability to detain and capture criminal aliens currently held in local jails. Through the Priority Enforcement Program ICE requests a detainer from a local jail to hold any criminal illegal alien so that they can pick them up for deportation. Some cities refused to honor these ICE requests allowing illegal criminal aliens to be released once they have served their time in jail.
This program made national news in 2015 after the murder of Kate Steinle by an illegal criminal alien. Some sanctuary cities, such as Los Angeles, have re-evaluated their sanctuary policies and now work with ICE to detain the most dangerous illegal criminal aliens. Many sanctuary cities, however, still refuse to honor the detainer request or notify federal authorities when they apprehend an illegal alien.
These reports show this administration’s unwillingness to prosecute immigration crimes or effectively deal with sanctuary city policies that put Americans at risk.
You can read more on this story at The Washington Examiner.
