Hearing Wrap Up – Release of Non-Citizens

“A Review of the Department of Homeland Security’s Policies and Procedures for the Apprehension, Detention, and Release of Non-Citizens Unlawfully Present in the United States”

Background:

• On November 20, 2014, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson issued a memorandum that contained new policies for the apprehension, detention, and removal of undocumented immigrants.

• According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 36, 007 criminal non-citizensunlawfully present in the United Stated were released in FY 2013.

Hearing Purpose:

• To highlight DHS policies on apprehension, detention, and release of criminal non-citizens who are removable from the US.

• Bring attention to another collateral effect of Obama’s executive actions on immigration, which will cause an increase in risk to public safety.

• Hear from DHS, local law enforcement, an immigration expert, and family members of individuals killed by removable non-citizens on how the Administration’s policies and procedures undermine public safety.

What We Learned:

• “The problem with the current immigration policy can simply be stated as there is NO coherent, sustainable immigration policy.  Worse than that, there is anti-policy (an unwillingness to support even current promulgated policy or challenge contrary policies), and each State has [its] own policy and laws on immigration.” – Sheriff Scott Jones, Sacramento County Sheriff

• The number of ICE deportations from the interior has dropped 58 percent since the peak in 2009, from 236,000 to 102,000 in 2014.” – Jessica Vaughn, Center for Immigration Studies

• “ICE officers have told me that since the administration’s policies of prosecutorial discretion were expanded, they are allowed to process only a small fraction of the number of aliens that they used to handle. One recently told me that his office used to process as many as 100 aliens per day but, since the president’s executive actions went into effect, now they are processing fewer than five to 10 aliens per day, with the same staff and budget – meaning the government is spending perhaps 20 times more in resources to deport each alien than was the case before. This reality suggests that the president’s executive actions were less about prioritizing cases to make best use of scarce resources and more about protecting illegal aliens.”  — Jessica Vaughn, Center for Immigration Studies

For video and testimony transcripts click here.

Key Videos:

Congressman Walberg on DHS funding: “We have done our job.”

Family members of individuals killed by non-citizen criminals talk about their loved ones.