Immigration officials released nearly 600 convicted sex offender illegal aliens back onto U.S. streets, many because their home countries refused to accept their deportation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials reported that 564 illegal aliens convicted of sex crimes were released after a judge issued removal orders. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that ICE officials cannot indefinitely jail illegal immigrants ordered deported if their countries refuse to repatriate them. The numbers reported comes from a review by the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) of the latest accounting review of Fiscal Year 2015, the Washington Examiner reported.
The IRLI found that of the 564 released, 151 were due to their country of origin refused to accept them back. The immigration legal watchdog obtained records through a Freedom of Information Act request. The documents contained reports that of the 564 criminal aliens released, 194 were convicted of sexual assault, 95 were convicted of “commercialized sexual offenses,” and 275 were convicted of other sexual offenses.
“The anti-borders left routinely inject sanctimony into the immigration issue claiming that anyone with opposing arguments is morally inferior,” IRLI Executive Director Dale Wilcox told the Washington Examiner. “But when statistics like this come out, statistics which show the horrific consequences of having an unregulated immigration system, they merely step over them like they don’t exist,”
Of the 564 released sex offenders, immigration judges release 218. Twelve others were released under “prosecutorial discretion” issues including DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals).
Immigration officials did not release the names of the released sex offenders or their locations, the IRLI reported.
In 2015, Breitbart News reported that ICE officials do not track the released sex offenders. They also do not add them to sex offender registration lists. Then-executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations at ICE Gary Mead testified before a House congressional subcommittee that released criminal aliens have committed other crimes after being let go. Those crimes include “arson, assault, property damage, extortion, forgery or fraud, homicide, kidnapping, weapons offenses, embezzlement, controlled substance offenses, and sexual offenses.” At least two of the released aliens went on to kill police officers, he testified.
Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) Policy Studies Director Jessica Vaughan reviewed the fiscal year 2015 audit determined a total of 179,040 convicted criminals were ordered deported by an immigration judge, Breitbart Texas reported in July 2016. Of those, only 6,905 remained in custody of ICE officials. That leaves 172,135 convicted criminal aliens roaming the streets after a final order of removal. This number is at the highest lever for the past four report years and represents a 20 percent increase over the 2012 numbers, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports obtained by CIS.
In addition to a country’s refusal to repatriate deportees, many aliens ordered deported simply disappear after being released. “Former immigration judge Mark Metcalf has analyzed immigration court data and found that more than half of non-detained aliens skip out on their hearings, Vaughan wrote in the report.”
Vaughan reported sanctuary city policies as the third major contributing reason for criminal aliens remaining in the U.S. after deportation orders.
Most notable among these is Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez. This criminal illegal alien was awaiting his sixth deportation after serving time in a federal prison in California. Before he could be deported, San Francisco asked to take custody of the criminal alien on an old drug charge. When that charge was dropped, the sanctuary city of San Francisco ignored the immigration hold order and released him on the public. A few months later, he allegedly shot and killed Kate Steinle as she was walking along the San Francisco Pier with her father. Breitbart News has reported extensively on Steinle’s murder and the controversy over the city’s sanctuary policy.
Congress is attempting to take action against countries that refuse to accept deportees. In July, Breitbart Texas reported Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) filed “Casey’s Law,” a bill named after a woman murdered by a Hatian criminal alien not deported after being released from prison. The Remedies for Refusal of Repatriation Act calls for holding countries that refuse to accept deported aliens accountable.
“Casey’s Law would establish clear criteria to identify and hold accountable countries that systematically refuse or delay the repatriation of their citizens who have been convicted of a violent crime, or who pose a threat to public safety,” a written statement from the Texas senator’s office stated.
“Illegal immigrants convicted of violent crimes should not be left on our streets, and if other countries won’t cooperate in taking them back there should be consequences,” Sen. Cornyn said. “I thank Senator Blumenthal for working with me to address this ongoing problem and keep our country safe from dangerous individuals who shouldn’t be here.”
U.S. Representative Ted Poe also filed legislation to pressure countries to accept their citizens being deported from the U.S. The purpose of his bill is to restrict diplomatic visas to countries that deny or unreasonably delay repatriation of one of their citizens ordered removed by a U.S. immigration judge. “This is one aspect of Border Security and National Security that has unfortunately slipped through the cracks,” Poe said after filing the bill in 2015. “We give convicted foreign criminals a get-out-of-jail-free card to live in the United States because we cannot permanently detain them and their countries of origin refuse to take them back. This is a dangerous and deadly Achilles heel in our immigration system. It is time that we offer a proper incentive to these uncooperative nations who freely take our money, and turn around and disrespect our laws. We should not be issuing diplomatic VISA’s to nations that refuse to cooperate with our government. Keeping their criminals here is endangering our citizens.”
The report released by CIS revealed at least 925,193 illegal aliens remain in the U.S. after being ordered to leave the country.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.