Donald Trump has weighed in on the Obama administration’s release of more than 36,000 criminal immigrants last year.
Taking to Twitter over the weekend, the real estate mogul with a propensity for political flirtations, slammed the government as “highly incompetent” and “so stupid” for releasing tens of thousands of convicted criminal immigrants back into the country.
Last week the Center for Immigration Studies issued a report on an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement document, seen by Breitbart News, which revealed that last year ICE released 36,007 immigrants convicted of nearly 88,000 crimes — including murder, sexual assault, and kidnapping.
Early Monday morning Trump revisited the issue, declaring that the country “must stop releasing hard core criminals all over the United States.”
ICE defended the releases last week by noting that the released immigrants, awaiting the outcome of deportation proceedings, had completed their criminal sentences.
“In many of the releases in 2013, ICE was required by law to release the individuals from custody, pursuant to decisions by the Supreme Court and other federal courts. Once in ICE custody, many of the individuals described in the report were released under restrictions such as GPS monitoring, telephone monitoring, supervision, or bond,” ICE said.
The House Judiciary Committee is planning to bring Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to testify to these releases in the near future.