This is remarkable. A just-released Syracuse University study indicates that the government is overstating its enforcement of the immigration laws by a staggering amount.
According to TRAC, Syracuse’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has overstated the number of immigration law violators apprehended by a 5:1 ratio. And that’s the good news. Deportations were overstated by 24:1 and detentions by 34:1.
TRAC says that ICE has represented, not only in press releases but in congressional testimony, that in 2005 it apprehended 102,034. The records it produced, however, show only 21,339. It further claimed 166,075 deportations but documented only 6,906; and said it had detained 233,417 when the paperwork shows only 6,778.
TRAC notes that the Obama administration delayed complying with its FOIA request for nearly two years (it was submitted in May 2010). TRAC argues that ICE has either geometrically inflated its performance or grossly violated FOIA in withholding information. ICE, according to TRAC, has also attempted to obstruct compliance with FOIA by claiming that Syracuse University is not an academic institution, by insisting that previously provided statistical data was suddenly considered “unavailable,” and by charging over a half-million dollars in processing fees.
More here.
This is highly disturbing. We have two serious problems here: (1) A presidential administration deliberately not enforcing federal laws it is sworn to comply with; and (2) subsequently lying about it.
Why would Obama do this, if not for the most cynical of reasons (i.e., to gain political favor among Americans by claiming to enforce immigration laws, as 80% of Americans -- the greatest area of political consensus across all issues -- want him to do; and to simultaneously gain favor among Hispanics by not actually enforcing the laws and playing into their ethnic chauvinism that says their ethnic brothers-in-arms should be held above the law)?
Is there anything that Congress can do to really tighten the screws on Obama for this? Unfortunately, I fear our Fourth Estate will be out to lunch -- the left-wing mainstream media actively advocate against any immigration laws whatsoever, while the right-wing mainstream media (i.e., News Corp's properties) are wildly pro-Open Borders.
Well, I am sick and tired of this, and I don't think I'm alone among Americans in feeling that way. This is also why I am voting Romney. He is the only one who shows any understanding of the need to finally enforce our immigration laws. (He also seems to be the only one who really wants a smaller government, unlike lifelong-politicians Santorum, Gingrich and even Perry, and the only one who seems willing to reform entitlements along the Ryan Plan's lines.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhen so many instances pile up of flagrant lawlessness and intense politicization of the growing bureaucracy and conservatives can never win a regulatory fight and when they do win a ~court~ fight the administration will dissemble and lie and drag feet and hide the ball...when everywhere they refuse to enforce laws that they do not like and refuse to prosecute lawbreakers whom they perceive as political allies, and all of this is aided an abetted by their politic allies who dominate the MSM (and they even want to shut down the little bit of media access that conservatives have managed to carve out) eventually you get to a point where it is necessary to find a way to deal with these people with less encumbrance of due process.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse(I hope that the lamppost logo that The Corner has adopted is intended as a reminder to tyrants of how badly things can can end for them when power is abused beyond an intolerable point.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDon't worry, Ed. All wrongs will be righted if Mitt wins and we take back the Senate. Remember how right things got when the GOP controlled all branches of government way back 6 years ago? Remember how we were on the track to less government and less... oh, wait... no.
The republican party needs to be taken over from the inside quickly, or we need a real conservative party. Two Big Government parties are killing us.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRightEveryTime,
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou are so right.
Hardly surprising. Now that the administration has attacked any state that actually tries to enforce the law, or individuals it is predictable that they want to cover their tracks. Perception is everything. Just another lie.
Nothing to see here, move along.
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Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusethese are 2005 numbers. were the obamites inflating 2005 numbers? what would that get them?
I'm confused.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseQuite simply, the 0bama regime wants the American public to think they're actively detaining and deporting illegals WHEN IN ACTUALITY THEY ARE SIMPLY LOOKING THE OTHER WAY AS THE ILLEGALS CLIMB OVER THE FENCE BECAUSE DEMOCRATS USE ILLEGAL ALIENS FOR FRAUDULENT VOTES AND OBAMA KNOWS THAT'S THE ONLY WAY HE CAN WIN IN 2012. IT'S SICKING AND TREASONOUS.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't know about that, but I do know this: Obama has directed that de facto amnesty be granted to millions of illegals by means of prosecutorial discretion.
And let's not argue over terminology: When the government reviews an illegal's case and affirmatively decides that it will not pursue the lawbreaker for being illegally in the country, they are granting him the right to stay.
Impeachment proceeding should be initiated.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusethe point is the department has been pushing inflated numbers ... the current folks running that department ... who cares what their motive is ? What was the motive for Fast and Furious ? nobody knows ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe 0bama regime LIES. A VOTE FOR OBAMA IN 2012 IS A REFLECTION OF ONE'S IGNORANCE AND STUPIDITY!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseICE misleads with enforcement numbers, every unemployment report has subsequently been revised upwards, CBO scoring is gamed by having to include legislators' assumptions....
Why does anyone believe U.S. government numbers anymore?
Isn't it terribly reminiscent of the old Soviet Union's remarkably positive economic reports? ...until it imploded, that is?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAlso, this month's chocolate ration seems no larger than last month's chocolate ration, even though MiniPlenty said it was now 30 grams instead of 20.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI know this is realized by anybody who has enough integrity to look at the issue honestly, but basically the only thing that is ever going to be allowed to happen by the usual suspects is for enforcement to continue to be lax, borders to continue to be porous, and for the issue to be settled by default about ten to twenty years from now when the anchor babies vote their parents in. (The only way this scenario will not play out is for the common people on the right to oppose it--and get demonized in the process, no matter how it gets resolved). I invite the first person to write this entire paradigm up as Federalist #86--how immigration issues should be handled in an advanced industrial nation. By fraud.
How much trust the law-abiding will have in such a system if such events take place, and their willingness to endeavor or sacrifice for the common good, will be interesting experiments to be sure. If votes fairly arrived at in legislative session and fairy enacted into law mean nothing in the long run, then eventually the system means nothing also, and you have rule by functional brute force alone-- no matter how well disguising the velvet glove may end up being.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo, at the very least, SU's Maxwell School has produced two very good things:
The volumes of Ralph Ketchum's Madison scholarship;
TRAC.
Okay, 2 1/2: Senator D'Amato.
"Syracuse University is not an academic institution"? Oh, but Occidental College IS?
How much of a snob can this overpaid Haw-vuhd grad in the Oval Office actually be?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe are surrounded by duplicity and prevaricators who spring from a political culture that encourages such behavior as a means to their ends.
What do we do when those entrusted to enforce the law won't, and in fact, lie outright about their actions and inactions?
What?
If their intentions are the good idea they would purport them to be, why are those intentions presented in, and as, lies?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy guess is we will do nothing, as we are DOING nothing. Trust in authority will continue to erode, police powers will continue to expand and this will go on for a very long time until, very quickly, it won't... and hopefully not too violently.
Either the mounting debts of leviathan will implode the beast, or some revolution will happen. Until then, people will make do until they can't, and then it will all change.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe American people are repeatedly assured that criminal illegal immigrants are detained, tried and punished or deported, but that's not true. My family was involved in a very serious vehicle accident with a drunk illegal immigrant who had no driver's license and no auto insurance. He had been jailed and released three times on DUI charges that involved personal injuries and property damage prior to our accident.
If the man who victimized us had been an American citizen, he would have been charged, tried and punished for his crimes, but because he was an illegal immigrant, he was ordered released by federal authorities who didn't want to bother with him. Apparently, the federal government doesn't consider causing serious bodily injuries to innocent people and property damage in the thousands of dollars a crime if the perpetrator is an illegal immigrant.
My husband and I were told by local law enforcement officers in California that they were prohibited by federal authorities from doing anything to this man, including driving him to the border and forcing him to go back where he came from. They said they reminded the feds that this guy was a repeat offender and expressed their concern that he would eventually kill someone. The feds told them it wasn't their concern and warned them that they - not him - would be punished if they took any action against him.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJenna,
Please contact me. I'd like to talk with you about the illegal alien that caused your accident. Thanks.
Steve Salvi, Founder
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOhio Jobs & Justice PAC
salvi@ojjpac.org
Wow. This combined with Obama's de facto amnesty policy for millions of illegal aliens, confirm what we already sadly know: that our borders are still wide open for anyone to sneak in, stay, steal jobs and consume taxpayer resources.
But according to the CATO Institute, this enriches our culture.
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