Much of the
attention on the Obama Administration’s suspension of immigration law has cited
the Administration’s decision to provide executive amnesty and work permits for
illegal immigrants covered by the DREAM Act proposal that Congress repeatedly
rejected. Less attention was given to the August 23, 2013 Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) directive expanding that amnesty to illegal immigrant relatives
of DREAM Act beneficiaries. So too was less notice given to the December 21,
2012 DHS directive reinforcing that almost all immigration offenses were
unenforceable absent a separate criminal conviction.[1]
Now, a review
of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) 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.
Here are the
sober facts.
According
to ICE’s published report on 2013
removals,[2] 98% of all removals met one of the agency’s
“enforcement priorities”: individuals who have been convicted of a serious
criminal offense; those apprehended in the act of crossing the border; those who
have been previously deported; and fugitives 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). Less than 0.2% of the approximately 12
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; only about .08% of the approximately 12 million were placed into removal
proceedings who were neither convicted of a serious crime nor a repeat
immigration violator. While there is no published tally of the .08%, reports
from ICE officers indicate these individuals likely had other security red flags
on their record. Regardless, at least 99.92% of illegal immigrants and visa
overstays without known crimes on their records did not face
removal.
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. After a law
enforcement action took place at a Phoenix car wash last year, local media
reported: “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.” ICE
officers were ordered to ignore the law, as they are so ordered every day, and
to release 179 illegal workers because they did not have known outstanding
warrants or criminal convictions.[3]
Or consider
the report from a local news outlet in Texas, entitled “Illegal Immigrants
Captured, Then Released in US.” The report explained that a “dozen [illegal
immigrants] were set free at a Brownsville bus station. ICE doesn’t consider the
group a major threat to our safety. They’re considered a low priority. ICE
routinely releases illegal immigrants.”[4] In 2011, an ICE officer was
warned that he would be brought up on disciplinary action for trying to issue a
Notice to Appear to an illegal immigrant 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.[5]
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
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.
DHS has
declared to foreign visitors, would-be visa overstays, and future illegal
immigrants across the world that immigration law will almost surely not apply
unless you are a.) physically caught crossing the border (a non-issue for
overstays) or b.) caught committing a serious crime while in the
U.S.
This free pass
from immigration law even applies to those with criminal records that do not
rise to the level of an agency “priority.” ICE officers are routinely forced to
release those with criminal records who are considered eligible for
“prosecutorial discretion,” based on the deemed seriousness of the criminal
offense. (ICE guidelines even outline the need for multiple misdemeanor criminal
convictions.[6]) Chris Crane, president of the ICE officers’
union, explained that “violent criminals are released
every day back into communities based on the president’s unlawful policies.”[7] And since ICE officers are frequently barred
from issuing detainers (to prevent release on the underlying charge) until
criminal suspects are actually convicted, many high-risk offenders are released
on bond and flee from authorities before the trial ever takes place.[8]
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. Much of
ICE’s operation has been reduced to transporting convicted felons from prisons
to planes.
But the Los
Angeles Times reports that with the new “enforcement review,” the
Administration is considering going even further and erasing most of the
now-statistically-rare 13,000 interior removals categorized as either
immigration fugitives or habitual violators/previous deportees (which are still,
of course, serious offenses). The Times writes: “the changes under review
would effectively stop most deportations of foreigners with no criminal
convictions other than immigration violations, and focus enforcement efforts
instead mostly at those charged or convicted of felony crimes or who pose more
of a threat to public safety.”[9] In other words: 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.
Already, a
closer examination of FY13 removals illustrates the extent to which an
immigration violator without a serious criminal record is already functionally
immune from interior enforcement.
Since
two-thirds of removals were not interior deportations but border apprehensions,
let’s focus on the 133,000 removals that are more commonly understood as
deportations.[10] Of the 133,000 interior removals in FY13, ICE
reports 82%, or 110,000, were convicted criminals (see breakdown here). ICE further reports that 80,000 of the 110,000
were convicted of a felony (including 53,000 convicted of one or more aggravated
felonies). The remaining 30,000 were convicted of a crime less than a felony but
in most cases, according to ICE, had also either absconded or re-entered the
country illegally after being deported (a felony). Altogether, 60% of all
convicted criminals removed by ICE had either been previously deported and
returned to this country whereupon they committed a crime, or had been released
after being apprehended by immigration authorities and fled, becoming a
fugitive.
So, we are
left with roughly 23,000 interior removals which, according to ICE, don’t have a
known criminal conviction in the U.S. on their record. Of those 23,000, ICE
reports that 13,000 are either fugitives or habitual offenders/previous
deportees. That leaves only 10,000 removals out of 368,000 removals—or just
2%—who were seemingly removed/returned for immigration crimes without additional
serious offenses such as being felons or fugitives. However, according to the
National ICE Council, many of these were security red flags for other reasons
(for instance, they had been in and out of jail for serious offenses without a
conviction) and the field office was able to overcome “prosecutorial discretion”
to secure a removal.
As previously
established, of the 12 million current illegal immigrants and visa overstays,
approximately 0.2% were removed who did not have a criminal conviction and
approximately 0.08% were removed who were not habitual offenders/previous
deportees or convicted criminals. Yet now, per the LA Times, those
instances may be further reduced towards 0%—which would represent a nearly
complete prohibition against everyday immigration enforcement and would erase
the core distinction between legal and illegal
immigration.
The
Administration’s actions are breathtaking and without precedent. American
citizens have both a legal and moral right to the protection our immigration
laws afford; those rights have been systematically 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.
[NOTE: To view
this document as a PDF, please click
here. To read Sen. Sessions’ statement on this analysis, please click
here.]
U.S.
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) serves on four Senate committees: Armed Services,
Judiciary, Environment and Public Works, and as Ranking Member of the
Budget Committee. Visit
Sessions online at his website
or
via YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Note: Please do not
reply to this email. For further information, contact Sen. Sessions’ Press Office at (202)
224-4124.
###
[3] Associated Press, “Feds serve
warrants at Phoenix-area car washes,” published August 17,
2013.
[7] Daily Caller, “ICE Agent Union
Head: Obama in ‘no position’ to Demand Congress pass immigration reform,”
published on October 16, 2013.
[9] Los Angeles Times, “Obama
calls on Homeland Security to ease deportations,” published March 14,
2014.
[10] For comparison, in the last year
of the Bush Administration, only a little more than one-third of removals were
border apprehensions.
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