Hundreds of thousands of deportable aliens were released instead of deported in 2013 due to the Obama administration’s prosecutorial discretion guidelines, according a recent report from the Center for Immigration Studies.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials reported 722,000 encounters with deportable aliens and filed immigration charges in 195,000 of those encounters in 2013. ICE released 68,000 criminal aliens during that time, according to the report.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said the Obama administration disregarded public safety by releasing criminal illegal immigrants back into neighborhoods.
“When the government puts criminal and illegal immigrants back on the street, it can have tragic results,” Smith said. “Studies show that these criminal and illegal immigrants are likely to repeat their offenses. In fact, in 2012, the Congressional Research Service determined that over 26,000 criminal and illegal immigrants were re-arrested almost 58,000 times. Their crimes ranged from drug violations to major offenses, such as rape, kidnapping and murder.”
The amount of aliens targeted for deportation by ICE dropped 28 percent from 2012 to 2013, and more than 870,000 people have been ordered to leave the country but have not done so, according to the report.
“The result of this administration’s conscious failure to enforce immigration law threatens innocent Americans,” Smith said. “If the president cannot be trusted to enforce our current immigration laws, he cannot be trusted to enforce any changes to our immigration policies.”