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Illegals
become repeat criminals
Dear James,
Commentary on this issue
by Michael Cutler, ACT Board of Advisors
(After reading this
commentary please call or email your elected officials and voice your
opinion. Remember every email or phone call represent one thousand
voters. They need to hear from 40 to 50 of you to make this issue their
top priority. Squeeky wheel gets the oil. Call or email your elected
official today with your opinion. Click on
Contact Congress to
get your elected official's contact information. Brigitte Gabriel)
Here is
another article that reports on incompetence within the immigration
enforcement program that threatens the safety of decent people
throughout the United States.
ICE has once again come up short where a critical mission is concerned;
this time it is the identification and removal of aliens who are
convicted of committing felonies but are not removed from the
United States when they are released from prison.
Part of the problem stems
from the fact that as incomprehensible as it may appear, there are
communities around the United States
that apparently would rather not delve into the immigration status of
criminal aliens who are released back into their respective communities
where they prey on additional victims. This is one of the reasons that
so-called "Sanctuary" rules imposed by local communities on their police
officers is so insane.
Recidivism is a huge problem for our criminal justice system, that is to
say that criminals who are released after serving out the jail sentence
that was imposed upon being convicted of committing a crime go back out
on the street only to commit additional crimes. When the recidivist is
a United States citizen, our officials have no choice in the matter but
to release criminals after their imposed periods of incarceration have
been completed and attempt to keep track of them through the often
overburdened parole system.
Where alien criminals are
concerned, however, our officials do have an option that can help to
safeguard their communities by notifying ICE that such a criminal alien
is in custody, having been convicted of a felony such as murder, rape,
drug trafficking, arson, armed robbery, etc. Even if the alien in
question had attained resident alien status, depending on the crime for
which the alien was convicted, removal proceedings can be implemented so
that upon the completion of serving his jail sentence, such an alien can
be deported back to his country of citizenship.
In the early 1980's I approached then Senator Al D'Amato, one of the two
senators who represented the state of New York in the United States
Senate. I told him that I had a number of ideas for him to consider
where the enforcement of the immigration laws was concerned. He told me
that he would want to hear from a number of my colleagues to corroborate
my ideas and so I set out to convince a number of INS special agents to
meet with members of the senator's staff. Ultimately more than 30 of my
colleagues filed into his office on various occasions. I suggested that
the penalty for re-entry after deportation needed to be increased when
the deported alien was a criminal who had been convicted of committing
felonies.
Up until then, the immigration statutes did not differentiate between an
alien whose only offense was to enter our country in violation of law or
otherwise violate the terms of his admission and was subsequently
deported as compared with an alien who was deported for committing
felonies.
At that time, the penalty for
unauthorized re-entry after deportation was a maximum of two years in
federal custody. To my thinking and the thinking of my colleagues, the
two year penalty was appropriate for a non-criminal alien, but we were
in agreement that an alien who was deported after being convicted of
committing a felony and then returned to the United
States illegally should face a maximum penalty of 20
years in jail.
I also suggested to Senator D'Amato that the system that had been in
place back then in which the former INS did not initiate deportation
proceedings until after the alien who was serving jail time was released
was absurd. It made more sense, we told him, that deportation hearings
be held in the various jails so that any alien who was placed under
deportation proceedings would have a number of years, while in jail, to
seek to appeal his order of deportation if he so desired.
This would mean that most
aliens who were ordered deported would have adequate time to run the
appeals process before he could be released. That way he could, in most
instances, placed on an airplane and removed from the
United States upon his release from prison.
Previously such alien criminals either tied up limited immigration jail
space or were released to the street whereupon they would likely abscond
and/or commit additional crimes.
We also provided D'Amato with a veritable "laundry list" of other issues
that were of concern to us. Senator D'Amato, in consultation with Rudy
Giuliani, who was at the time the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, decided to back our proposal for
increasing the penalties for unlawful re-entry after deportation for
criminal aliens, deemed, "Aggravated Felons." Ultimately the maximum
penalty for the illegal re-entry of such criminal aliens was increased
to 20 years in federal custody.
This change had two benefits.
First of all, the much stiffer jail sentence could be seen as a
stronger deterrent against such criminals returning to the
United States illegally. Additionally, because the
maximum jail sentence had jumped greatly, federal prosecutors were more
likely to seek to prosecute such criminal aliens where they were
previously reluctant to go through the process because they felt that
the relatively light sentence did not justify the effort such
prosecutions required.
This increased interest by
federal prosecutors to indict such criminal aliens increased the
likelihood that an "aggravated felon" who had been deported would be
prosecuted if he was found in the United States
thereby presumably deterring still more criminal aliens from returning
to the United States
illegally after they were deported. This increased interest by the
United States Attorneys in large cities such as New York also resulted
in specialized INS squads to be created to seek to locate and arrest
criminal aliens who had been deported and then had returned to the
United States.
Additionally, the concept of routinely holding deportation hearings in
prisons became the Institutional Hearing Program (IHP) which helped the
former INS to locate and seek the deportation of many criminal aliens
while they were incarcerated.
These programs continue to this day at ICE, however, even though these
efforts are helpful, the reality is that there are far too few personnel
at ICE to carry out these programs as effectively as possible. Indeed,
there are so few resources that the results can be readily seen in
reading the article I have attached below. The lack of personnel at ICE
means that ICE cannot go after all of the criminal aliens who should be
removed from the United States.
This, as the article points
out, causes some municipalities to not even make an effort to contact
ICE because the believe that ICE will most likely not respond. If you
couple these factors with the lunacy of the creation of "Sanctuary
cities and communities" it become clear that these issues conspire
against the residents of many communities and cities around the United
States where criminal aliens who could be removed from our county are
not removed but rather go back out on the street where they commit
multiple crimes against multiple victims.
On February 27, 2003 I
testified before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security
and Claims on the issue of, "New York City's 'Sanctuary' Policy and the
Effect of Such Policies on Public Safety, Law Enforcement and
Immigration." You can read the transcript of that hearing at:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_house_hearings&docid=f:85287.pdf
The fact of the matter is
that between a lack of resources and the extreme politicization of the
enforcement and administration of immigration law in the United States,
citizens as well as aliens who reside in the United States or simply
come to visit are imperiled by the failure of ICE to identify and remove
criminal aliens whose continued presence in our country constitutes a
threat to the safety of people throughout the United States.
The fact that the article
notes that the Office of the Inspector General did not even know how
many of more than a quarter of a million criminal aliens who had been
charged with a crime and were released were re-arrested, provides a
measure of the level of incompetence by ICE in tracking criminal aliens
and also illuminates the magnitude of the crisis concerning the huge
numbers of criminal aliens who are freely roaming the streets of our
cities and towns across this nation.
It would be interesting to
know how many of those criminal aliens entered the
United States by running our borders, entered the
United States
under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or by other methods.
This could help our
government to make better decisions as to how to keep criminals from
re-entering the United States.
However, with the current
attitude evidenced by our President and all too many "leaders" in
Washington where illegal aliens are referred to as "Undocumented
Workers," or, as Senator Kennedy refers to them, "The Undocumented"
avoiding any reference to the fact that were are dealing with
individuals who are aliens or that they are violating our laws, I am not
holding my breath while this outrageous situation continues.
More people are killed in the
United States each year by criminal aliens then were
the number of victims who were slaughtered as a result of the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001, yet this situation is permitted to
continue by politicians who are more concerned with providing a
limitless supply of cheap and exploitable labor for unscrupulous
employers.
They are also hoping to curry
favor with various special interest groups who they expect will deliver
not only campaign contributions but votes as well. They believe that
the status quo brought them into power and they will do anything to
maintain that status quo even if it results in the death and injury of
many of our citizens!
My friend Peter Gadiel, the
founder of "911 Families for a Secure America" lost his son to the
terrorists on September 11, 2001. Because I am an advisor to that
organization we speak frequently.
His life will never be the
same following the senseless death of his son. He often, cynically
refers to the outrageous situation where our open borders and
dysfunctional immigration system are concerned by referring to the
potential for the loss of many innocent lives should there be another
attack as well as the loss of life on a virtually routine basis at the
hands of criminal aliens in our country as being the, "Cost of doing
business" where many of our politicians on all levels are concerned.
Tragically and infuriatingly I believe Peter is absolutely right, but it
must change. Many innocent lives hang in the balance!
Lead, Follow or get out of
the Way!
-michael cutler
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070109-122510-1365r.htm
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Illegals become
repeat criminals
By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published January 9, 2007
Criminal aliens set free on the streets of America -- instead of being
deported after serving their time -- are being rearrested as many as six
more times by U.S. authorities, according to a government audit released
yesterday.
But the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General said it
did not know how many of 262,105 illegals in the audit, who had been
charged with a crime and then released, had been rearrested.
Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said that the volume of available
files "was too great to search manually and quantify the results" and
that investigators instead selected a sample of 100 illegal aliens
arrested in 2004 and reviewed their criminal histories for evidence of
rearrests.
Mr. Fine noted that although the limited audit did not find any
instances of "outright failure" to cooperate with Homeland Security in
the removal of criminal aliens from the United States, a review of the
100 criminal histories "produced results that, if indicative of the full
population of criminal aliens identified, suggest that the rate at which
released criminal aliens are re-arrested is extremely high."
The 91-page audit, which was requested by Congress, said the
limited sampling found that of the 100 selected aliens, 73 had an
average of six arrests each after being released from custody. They were
arrested, collectively, 429 times on 878 charges, ranging from traffic
violations and trespassing to drug crimes, burglary, robbery, assault
and weapons violations.
The audit found that local jurisdictions "prioritize enforcement of
state and local laws, while sometimes permitting or encouraging
law-enforcement officers" to work with Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE).
Last year, Congress required an annual audit as part of the Justice
Department's State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), which
provides federal funding to states and localities for the costs of
incarcerating criminal aliens on state or local charges. The program is
administered by the Justice Department in conjunction with ICE, which is
part of Homeland Security.
During fiscal 2005, Justice distributed $287.1 million in SCAAP
payments to 752 state, county and local jurisdictions -- nearly 70
percent of which went to 10 jurisdictions: the states of California, New
York, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Massachusetts; New York
City; and two California counties, Los Angeles and Orange.
The report also said investigators identified an official
"sanctuary" policy for two jurisdictions that received at least $1
million in SCAAP funding: Oregon, which received $3.4 million, and the
city and county of San Francisco, which received $1.1 million and has
designated itself a "city and county of refuge."
In addition, an executive order issued in New York City limits the
enforcement of immigration law by local authorities, the report said.
The audit defined "sanctuary" as a jurisdiction that may have state
laws, local ordinances or departmental policies limiting the role of
local authorities in the enforcement of immigration laws.
The audit also examined the level of cooperation among federal,
state and local authorities, but found "conflicting views between ICE
and local jurisdictions as to what actions constitute full cooperation."
" Congress did not define 'fully cooperate,' nor did our review of
immigration legislation disclose any specific steps that localities are
required to take to help effect the removal of criminal aliens from the
United States," the audit said.
The report also found that among 164 state and local agencies
surveyed:
·
30 jurisdictions do not generally ask those arrested about their
immigration status.
·
17 said they do not inform ICE when they have someone they suspect may
be an illegal alien in custody. Some agencies said they do not inform
ICE about possible illegals in custody because they don't think ICE will
respond.
· 18
jurisdictions do not alert ICE before releasing undocumented criminal
aliens.
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