Released FOIA Documents: 165,900 Convicted Criminal Illegals Released Into US by Obama Homeland Security

From: Freedom Outpost

by - Tim Brown

Yesterday, I reported on the fact that more people have been crossing the US/Mexico border illegally since October, including over 12,000 children 17 and under. Additionally, more than 30,000 illegals have been released into the US population rather than being sent back to their homes in various Central American countries. Now Judicial Watch has released documents which indicate that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released 165,900 illegal aliens as of April 26, 2014, all who were convicted criminals and many of whom had been convicted of violent crimes, back into the American population.

Judicial Watch obtained the 76-page document via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit they filed on July 21, 2014. The lawsuit had to be filed because Homeland Security would not respond to the FOIA request by the organization.

According to that lawsuit, the request was made to seek:

Any and all records of communications including, but not limited to, emails and memoranda, to or from personnel in the office of the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (including its component offices, such as the Office of Public Affairs), from May 1 to May 15, 2014, concerning, regarding, or related to the report published by the Center for Immigrations Studies concerning the release of 36,000 criminal aliens.

In a report by the Center for Immigration Studies dated 2014, CIS documented that ICE "freed 36,007 convicted criminal aliens from detention who were awaiting the outcome of deportation proceedings according to a document…"
 
At that time, Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX) called it the "Worst 'Prison Break' in History."
 
"This would be considered the worst prison break in American history, except it was sanctioned by the President and perpetrated by our own immigration officials," he said. "These criminal immigrants should have been deported to ensure that they could never commit crimes on U.S. soil.  But instead, ICE officials chose not to detain them and instead released them back onto American streets. The Administration's actions are outrageous.  They willfully and knowingly put the interests of criminal immigrants before the safety and security of the American people."
 
Judicial Watch reports:

The ICE documents confirm a May 2014 Center Immigration Studies (CIS) report showing that in 2013 ICE freed 36,007 convicted criminal aliens, who had nearly 88,000 convictions, including 193 homicide convictions, 426 sexual assault convictions, and 303 kidnapping convictions. 

As has been previously reported, and is evidenced in these documents, the 36,007 criminal aliens freed by ICE in 2013 were just the tip of the iceberg. In a DHS "Overview of ICE" document marked "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY," the following figures are reported through April 26, 2014 [NOTE: "Final Order" indicates the illegal aliens were ordered to leave the country, but have not done so and remain free]:

• Non-Detained Final Order Convicted CRIMINAL       165,950
• Non-Detained Final Order NON CRIMINAL               706,950
• Non-Detained Final Order TOTAL                              872,900

The documents also detail the difficulty caused by local policies that interfere with federal enforcement of immigration law and provide "sanctuary" for illegal alien criminals. 

An email dated May 2, 2014, highlights how such a policy in Montgomery County, Maryland, prevented immigration officials from gaining access to an illegal alien "in state custody on rape charges": 

ERO [Enforcement and Removal Operations] officers were also denied access to interview the alien at police station last Friday due to Montgomery County prohibitions against immigration enforcement. 

The documents also include a May 14, 2014, email from House Homeland Security Subcommittee Counsel Valerie Baldwin to ICE Executive Associate Director Thomas Holman expressing the subcommittee's frustration over ICE stonewalling of information concerning the criminal alien release policies: 

Gentlemen, At the ICE hearing and throughout the data call on ICE's budget request, we've requested data on the make-up of the non-detained ATD [Alternatives to Detention] docket, specifically as it relates to violent crimes. I'm wondering why the Washington Times and Washington Post have more information on the ATD population than the Chairman and the other members of the subcommittee. Please respond with an answer today.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, "It's appalling that we've had to sue in federal court to get key information about the Obama administration's release of 165,950 convicted criminal aliens. These documents show the Obama administration is lying when it says that its 'enforcement priorities' include deporting illegal aliens who have committed heinous crimes. And lawless localities that help protect illegal alien rapists and other criminals show that politicians at all levels put politics above the rule of law and the public safety.  Where do the innocent victims of the illegal alien criminals this president's appointees have set free go for justice?"

Fitton could rightly ask where the American people go to get justice for the crimes committed against them by this criminal administration's actions. The people certainly would like Congress to bring justice down, but they seem as though they are incapable (and willingly so) to keep from being just as corrupt themselves.


God bless,
JohnnyD