The House Judiciary Committee has released a report on how many immigrants identified by the Secure Communuties fingerprint-matching system were released (i.e., not deported) after being arrested by local police, and how many went on to commit additional crimes. (The report is here and the Washington Times story is here.) According to the report, over a nearly three-year period, just in the jurisdictions using the Secure Communities system, almost 47,000 illegal aliens were arrested but released because ICE chose not to take them into custody. One out of six of them was re-arrested, most for trivial little things like DUI or drug offenses, so there’s nothing to worry about. Even the 19 murders, 3 attempted murders, and 142 sex crimes committed by these illegals whom ICE affirmatively chose to ignore isn’t such a big deal — after all, how many of those murders happened in Brentwood or the Upper West Side or Kalorama? None of Obama’s donors know anyone who was murdered by the illegals the police were forced to release by federal inaction.
The administration reaction, to Times reporter Steve Dinan, was the usual obfuscation:
Spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said that given limited resources, they have to pick and choose which aliens they go after.
“Because ICE is congressionally funded to remove a limited number of individuals each year, the agency prioritizes our enforcement efforts on individuals whose removal has the biggest impact on public safety, including immigrants convicted of crimes, violent criminals, felons, and repeat immigration law offenders,” she said.
Except that the administration refuses to ask Congress for more funds to increase deportations — funds that would be approved. So they’re intentionally setting the ceiling on how many people they can deport lower than necessary, and then pointing to that ceiling to justify the release of illegal aliens who go on to kill Americans.
If this keeps up, even I might start missing the Bush administration.