House Judiciary Report Finds Administration's Lax Immigration Policies Are Deadly

House Judiciary Report Finds Administration’s Lax Immigration Policies Are Deadly

Washington, D.C. – The House Judiciary Committee today released a report finding that thousands of illegal and criminal immigrants released by federal authorities as a result of the Obama administration’s lax immigration policies have gone on to commit more crimes, including murder, rape, kidnapping, and child molestation. 

The report issued today, conducted by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), contains an analysis of crosschecked data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that was subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee last November.  The Committee subpoenaed the agency following the Obama administration’s announcement to stop deporting certain illegal immigrants flagged by Secure Communities, a successful and commonsense law enforcement program that identifies illegal immigrants arrested and booked in local jails. 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) released the statement below regarding CRS’s findings.

Chairman Smith:  “President Obama’s reckless amnesty agenda is dangerous and deadly for Americans.  Rather than protect the American people he was elected to serve, President Obama has imposed a policy that allows thousands of illegal immigrants to be released into our communities. They have committed thousands of more crimes, including 19 murders, 3 attempted murders, and 142 sex crimes, which could have been avoided.

“For example, after an illegal immigrant was released, he and another illegal immigrant were arrested on suspicion of killing a man.  And this is just one case.  Illegal immigrants released from jail have committed other crimes, including nearly 2,000 DUI, over 1,400 drug violations, and more than 1,000 major criminal offenses and violent crimes, which consist of murder, assault, battery, rape, kidnapping, child molestation, domestic abuse, lynching, stalking, and torture.

“The Obama administration could have prevented these senseless crimes by enforcing our immigration laws.  But President Obama continues to further his anti-enforcement agenda while innocent Americans suffer the consequences.  His unwillingness to enforce immigration laws puts our communities at risk and costs American lives.  We elect leaders to protect us – not put us in danger.”

Below are key findings from the CRS report.

The data provided to the House Judiciary Committee by DHS includes 276,412 records of charges against illegal and criminal immigrants identified by Secure Communities between October 27, 2008 and July 31, 2011.  There are 159,286 unique individuals in the database and 205,101 unique arrest incidents.

Of those released, CRS found that about 17% of illegal and criminal immigrants, or 26,412, were rearrested on criminal charges.   These 26,412 recidivists accounted for a total of 42,827 arrests and 57,763 alleged violations. 

The categories of crimes charged include nearly 8,500 DUI (14.6%), over 6,000 Drug Violations (10.9%), more than 4,000 Major Criminal Offenses (7.1%), which includes murder, assault, battery, rape, and kidnapping, nearly 3,000 Theft (4.9%), and over 1,000 Other Violent Crimes (2.1%), which includes carjacking, child cruelty, child molestation, domestic abuse, lynching, stalking, and torture.

These crimes committed by both illegal and legal immigrants include 59 murders, 21 attempted murders, and 542 sex crimes.

Of those rearrested, nearly 30%, or 7,283, were illegal immigrants. Since 46,734 illegal immigrants were released, this means they have a recidivism rate of 16%.  These illegal immigrants should have been deported but the Obama administration’s lax immigration policies released them back into our communities.

The crimes charged against these illegal immigrants include nearly 2,000 DUI (11.9%), over 1,400 drug violations (8.8%), and more than 1,000 major criminal offenses and violent crimes (6.9%), including murder, assault, battery, rape, kidnapping, child molestation, domestic abuse, lynching, stalking, and torture.

These crimes committed by illegal immigrants include 19 murders, 3 attempted murders, and 142 sex crimes.

In researching one of the identified murder cases, the House Judiciary Committee found a case where an illegal immigrant was flagged by Secure Communities under the Obama administration’s watch – for vehicle theft in June 2010 – and he was arrested again for an attempt to commit grand theft just five months later.  After this illegal immigrant was released, he and another illegal immigrant were arrested on suspicion of killing a man who had chased the perpetrators who had robbed his 68-year-old grandfather. 

To read the entire report, visit http://judiciary.house.gov/news/pdfs/Criminal%20Aliens%20Report.pdf