Thousands of "detention beds" are lying empty at night as the Obama administration fails to reach its quota of 34,000 undocumented aliens held by immigration authorities every day that was mandated by Congress.
With President Barack Obama's immigration orders starting to take effect, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) is devoting more time and money to catch each illegal immigrant, resulting in fewer detainees,
according to The Washington Times.
The problem is compounded by the fact that some illegal immigrants who have been set free under Obama's executive orders have gone on to commit major crimes, including murder.
"How many Americans killed by illegal aliens are too many?" said Jamiel Shaw, who told a congressional hearing on Wednesday that his son was killed by a so-called "Dreamer" immigrant, brought here illegally as a child. "Dream Act kids have turned my family's American dream into a nightmare."
In the fiscal year of 2015 that began in October, ICE has averaged 27,000 detainees a day, more than 20 percent short of the capacity required by law. But ICE claims that although Congress demanded 34,000 beds be available daily for illegal immigrants, not all of them need to be filled, the Times said.
Jessica Vaughan, who studies enforcement trends for the Center for Immigration Studies, told Congress on Wednesday that the administration deported fewer than 20,000 immigrants in December, 50 percent less than the average for the month over the last few years.
In prepared testimony for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, she said "all of the significant metrics of enforcement activity tracked by ICE — encounters, arrests, detainers and charging documents issued — show declines in recent years."
Last year the Obama administration instructed the Department of Homeland Security to stop arresting illegal immigrants unless they have a serious criminal record or crossed the border since January 2014.
Vaughan said that empty "detention beds" means that illegal immigrants are being released by ICE despite awaiting deportation orders. She says that they then can disappear or, even worse, go on to commit crimes while out on the streets.
Michael Ronnebeck testified to the House oversight committee that his nephew, 21-year-old Grant Ronnebeck, was killed by an illegal immigrant who was initially awaiting deportation but had been released from custody by ICE because he was not seen as a danger to society, the Times reported.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Arizona GOP Sen. Jeff Flake, sent a letter to ICE Director Sarah Saldana asking for information about a convenience store clerk allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant who had been freed on bond while awaiting deportation.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said Obama has "gutted" immigration enforcement laws, while blaming the problem on certain states that release inmates from their jails even though they are illegal immigrants and should be held until ICE agents can pick them up for deportation.
Obama also canceled the Secure Communities program that automatically checked state and local inmates against federal databases to see if they should be held for deportation, the newspaper reported.
"As a result of these foolish polices, the number of unlawful or criminal aliens that ICE has removed from the interior of the country has fallen by more than half since 2008," Goodlatte said.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.