The prison reform bill endorsed by Pres. Trump on Wednesday and likely to come to the House and Senate floors during the lame duck session could allow criminal aliens, including convicted cartel and gang members, to receive early release from prison.
According to a recent report released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Boston Field office for the for the staff of the Massachusetts governor, ICE was only able to arrest about half of the 456 deportable criminal aliens that had been arrested in the state over the course of 10 weeks, due to court-imposed sanctuary policies. Massachusetts local authorities' refused to cooperate with ICE, either by not honoring detainers issued by the agency or releasing criminal aliens before ICE was able to issue a detainer.
Recent data, released today by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), revealed that the government granted amnesty to 53,000 illegal aliens -- 7% of all DACA recipients -- with existing criminal convictions under Pres. Obama's DACA executive amnesty. Of those criminal aliens approved for DACA, 10 were granted status despite being arrested for murder.
According to a Pew Research report, recent data from ICE revealed the overwhelming majority of all arrests made by ICE agents in FY 2017 were of “criminal” arrestees -- illegal aliens with prior criminal convictions. In just eight years, the overall number of ICE criminal arrests jumped from 39% in FY 2009 to a staggering 74% in FY 2017.
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia placed a preliminary injunction on a Texas law that requires jail officials to honor all requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold illegal aliens for pickup and deportation. He also enjoined another measure that prohibits “a pattern or practice that 'materially limits' the enforcement of immigration laws.” The provisions, which were to go into effect September 1st, are part of the anti-sanctuary legislation (SB 4) Gov. Greg Abbott signed earlier this year.
Pres. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions will prosecute first- time border crossers as criminals under Operation Streamline. Under Pres. Obama only repeat border-crossers could be prosecuted under the program.
Bret Stephens of The New York Times penned an op-ed breathtaking in its contempt for the American people. His basic argument is that "so-called Americans" must be replaced by immigrants if America is to survive.
The Dept. of Justice released their first report showing the number of foreign-born inmates incarcerated in federal U.S. prisons and their immigration status. This quarterly report was mandated by Pres. Trump in his Jan. 25 interior enforcement executive order.
The Department of Justice warned nine jurisdictions that they could lose federal grant funds unless they demonstrate compliance with federal anti-sanctuary law. The nine jurisdictions are Chicago, Cook County Ill. (encompasses Chicago) New Orleans, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Miami, Milwaukee, New York City and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
In an interview with Sharyl Attkisson, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said that he wants to see the State Department and DHS enforce current law that allows the U.S. to suspend visas from countries who refuse to take back their criminal illegal aliens. As a member of the House Committee on Appropriations he wants to affect the funding of these agencies until they enforce the law.
A Florida state judge last week ruled that President Trump’s sanctuary city executive order unconstitutionally coerced a county, which had been holding an alien for pickup and deportation by ICE. Eleventh Judicial Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch granted the alien’s claim and ordered his release even though there is no precedent for individuals making such claims based on the 10th Amendment.
Pres. Trump has invited the families of three people who were killed by illegal aliens to sit with First Lady Melania Trump during his speech to Congress tonight. This decision shows Pres. Trump’s commitment to strengthen interior enforcement and to the victims of criminal illegal aliens.
A new Center for Immigration Studies report shows that according to the Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) FY16 report the number of ICE deportations hit 10-year record lows. According to the OIS report ICE only removed 65,332 illegal aliens from the interior in FY16, a 6% decrease from FY15, making it the lowest number since 2006.
According to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) the Massachusetts’ immigration court had the lowest deportation rate of any U.S. state last year while ranking as one of the top states in granting asylum to illegal aliens.
A recent ICE enforcement report, released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, shows that with 75% of FY16 over ICE is on track to complete only 230,000 deportations, the lowest number since 2006. The report showed a decline in all ICE enforcement activity meaning fewer aliens have been put on the deportation track in 2016.
The Boston Globe conducted an investigation review of 323 criminal aliens released in New England from 2008 to 2012 and found that 30% of these criminal aliens went on to commit more crimes, including rape, robbery, and murder, after being released. This is a much higher rate than ICE and the Obama administration have reported.
A new chart released by the Senate Subcommittee Immigration and the National Interest, headed by Chairman Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), shows that deportations have declined by 43% in the last three years while the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) budget for the detention and removal of aliens has grown by 25%.
Sen. Sessions (R-Ala.) released a statement opposing the criminal justice reform bill that would release many criminal illegal aliens onto the streets. Sen. Sessions explained that the bill would shorten mandatory minimums for repeat drug traffickers that are being held in federal prison.
According to the Associated Press, the Obama administration has deported fewer illegal aliens in the last 12 months than any other time since 2006. There were approximately 231,000 deportations in fiscal year 2015 that ended on Sept. 30, a 42% decrease since 2012.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to renew its 287(g) program, a federal-state partnership that enables local police to send imprisoned illegal aliens to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) bureau for deportation. Supervisors Gloria Molina, Michael Antonovich and Don Knabe voted to retain the program while Mark Ridley-Thomas and Zev Yaroslavsky abstained.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released information provided by ICE that documents the 2013 release of 169 aliens with homicide-related convictions. The Center for Immigration Studies analyzed the information and produced a map showing where they were booked out of detention facilities in 24 different states. (See here for interactive map.)
A new report from the Inspector General has found that the Obama Administration released 600 convicted criminal illegal aliens in 2013, including several who had been convicted of violent crimes and others that had fallen into the mandatory detention category. The administration blamed the releases as a consequence of the budget sequester.
On Thursday, the House of Representatives approved two immigration enforcement amendments offered by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Act. The bill includes funding for the Justice Department, and Rep. King's amendments addressed the recent report of more than 36,000 criminal illegal aliens being released from custody and sanctuary cities.
A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies has determined that the Obama administration released 68,000 illegal aliens with criminal convictions in 2013. Additionally, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents reported 722,000 encounters with illegal aliens in 2013, but only followed through with immigration charges for 195,000 of them. The conclusions are based on data from ICE's 2013 year-end "Weekly Departures and Detention Report."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 2,901 illegal aliens over the last 10 days as part of an effort to catch and deport illegal aliens who have committed crimes. As part of the round-up, 42 gang members were arrested and 151 sex offenders.
The Department of Homeland Security announced today that all local law enforcement officials will soon be able to access a new technology that allows them to compare the fingerprints of prisoners with FBI and DHS databases. It will help local police identify criminal illegal aliens.
The U.S. government will collect DNA samples from people arrested and detained for suspected immigration violations, despite concerns that the move violates their privacy rights.
ICE arrested 384 fugitive aliens and immigration violators in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware during an enforcement operation that ran from October 14-26. Criminal histories of the arrestees included convictions for sexual assault, assault, burglary, robbery, bail jumping, criminal sale of a controlled substance, criminal possession of a weapon, DUI, DWI, resisting arrest, and trademark counterfeiting.
ICE agents arrested 58 fugitive aliens and 41 immigration violators during a week-long operation in Dallas, Denton and Lewisville Texas, the Associated Press reports. 22 of the 99 had previous criminal convictions. The arrestees included people from Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, Mexico, Nepal and Nicaragua.
ICE ended its self-deportation pilot program for non-criminal fugitive aliens last week, noting that it learned a lot from the three-week initiative. The main lesson was that the only method that works is enforcement.
ICE in partnership with state and local law enforcement across Massachusetts has arrested 55 permanent residents and 25 illegal aliens involved in gang activity in the state. The four-day operation was part of ICE’s Operation Community Shield initiative, which targets violent transnational street gangs. ICE plans to deport the illegal aliens and will attempt to remove the permanent residents based on their criminal histories.
A five-day Federal and local law enforcement operation netted the arrests of 55 fugitive aliens and seven other illegal aliens in Lee and Collier Counties, Florida last week. The operation serves as a reminder on this first day of Operation Scheduled Departure – an ICE program designed to give fugitive aliens an opportunity to turn themselves in for deportation -- that ICE has been increasingly successful in tracking down absconders.
"South Carolina's prisons hold 369 illegal immigrants serving sentences for killing, raping, robbing and other offenses, a population that has nearly doubled in the past five years, according to state prison officials.
Officials say they may not be the only illegals in the prisons because the system relies mostly on inmates to tell them their immigration status when they are admitted, raising questions about whose job it is to determine their status and what happens when they're freed after serving their sentences...."
