Freed criminal aliens likely more a threat than Isis or al-Qaeda

Letter date: 
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Letter publisher: 
Herald and News
Letter author: 
David Olen Cross
Letter body: 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in 2015 released 19,723 criminal aliens into the country who had been convicted and served time in federal and state prisons for serious crimes like homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, assault, drugs, driving under the influence, hit and run and a multitude of other crimes.

Here is a breakdown on the circumstances or stated reasons why ICE and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have released these criminal aliens instead of deporting them to their country of origin:

First, federal immigration judges, who are employed by the DOJ, released on bond or custody redetermination 10,175 criminal aliens.

Second, ICE discretionally released 7,293 criminal aliens.

Third, 2,166 criminal aliens were released by ICE because a federal court decision forbid aliens being held in immigration detention centers for more than 180 days.

Fourth, ICE released 89 criminal aliens because the federal agency was unable to obtain travel documents from the aliens’ country of origin.

Countries not providing travel documents, some nations where terrorist groups are active, included: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burundi, Cape Verde, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe.

To the detriment of public safety, the current presidential administration has been unwilling to limit visa issuance from the preceding countries, even though the administration is legally mandated to hold these counties accountable for their lack of cooperation in taking back their felonious citizens.

Regionally, data obtained from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) indicates the number of criminal aliens released by ICE into the Pacific Northwest states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in 2015: Washington,: 665 criminal aliens; Oregon, 58 criminal aliens; and Idaho, 32 criminal aliens. A total of 755 criminal aliens were released into the three states last year.

Future impact on Pacific Northwest states: Although data are not currently available on Washington and Idaho’s Department of Corrections prison systems; data available from Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) indicated there were 948 criminal aliens incarcerated in DOC prisons on April 1, 2016.

Some of these criminal aliens’ self-declared countries of origin may not provide them travel documents so they can be removed from the country by ICE after they complete their state prison sentences.

The Oregon DOC incarcerated 22 criminal aliens from the following countries whose citizens may be difficult to deport from the United States: Thirteen from Cuba, three from China, two from Liberia, two Somalia, one Eritrea and one from India.

Here are the types of crimes these 22 criminal aliens were convicted of in Oregon county circuit courts and sentenced to serve time in DOC prisons: Four for homicide, three for rape, three for assault, three theft, two kidnapping, two robbery, two burglary, one sex abuse, one drugs and one for another type of crime or a combination of the preceding crimes.

The most recent recidivism rate, the public safety threat to the state’s residents, from convicted felons released from the Oregon prison system is a 24.4 percent likelihood they will be convicted of a new felony after three years of their release from prison.

In the real world, in the daily lives of U.S. citizens and residents, our own federal government, by releasing 19,723 criminal aliens into the population of this country, is likely putting every man, woman and child at greater risk of being harmed or killed by felonious deportable aliens than by global terrorist organizations like ISIS or al-Qaeda.

Bio Box

David Olen Cross, Salem, writes on immigration issues and foreign national crime. He is a weekly guest on the Lars Larson Northwest Show. He can be reached at docfnc@yahoo.com or at http://docfnc.wordpress.com/. Jessica Vaughn, Director of Policy Studies for the Center of Immigrations Studies, contributed national and regional data to this report.