President

The National Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Council made its first political endorsement in a national campaign Monday, backing Donald Trump on the morning of the first presidential debate.

The National ICE Council, the union representing 5,000 federal immigration officers and law enforcement support staff, decided to endorse the GOP nominee after carefully considering the impact a Hillary Clinton presidency would have on their officers. Saying that Clinton has embraced the “unconstitutional executive orders” of President Barack Obama, Chris Crane, president of the National ICE Council, said in a statement that these orders “have forced our officers to violate their oaths to uphold the law and placed every person living in America at risk — including increased risk of terrorism.”

“Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has promised the most radical immigration agenda proposal in U.S. history,” Crane added. “Her radical plan would result in the loss of thousands of innocent American lives, mass victimization and death for many attempting to immigrate to the United States, the total gutting of interior enforcement, the handcuffing of ICE officers, and an uncontrollable flood of illegal immigrants across U.S. borders.”

“The non-enforcement agenda of this administration, favored by Secretary Clinton, results in the daily loss of life and victimization of many, to include not only American citizens but also those attempting to immigrate to our country.”

Crane noted ICE officers provide the “last line of defense” for American communities against the threats posed by illegal immigration. Lamenting the fact that the officers are “underfunded and undermanned” as they try to uphold and enforce U.S. laws, Crane painted a bleak picture of the current situation faced by ICE officers.

“Our officers come into daily contact with many of the most dangerous people in the world — cartel members, gang members, weapons traffickers, murder suspects, drug dealers, suspects of violent assault — yet ICE officers are unable to arrest or are forced to release many of the most dangerous back into U.S. communities due to unscrupulous political agendas and corrupt leaders,” Crane said.

After noting that only 5 percent of the council's membership supported Clinton's presidential bid, Crane lambasted the Democratic presidential nominee for catering to the special interest groups and "open-borders radicals" all in the name of "cheap labor, greed and votes."

"Let us be clear: The non-enforcement agenda of this administration, favored by Secretary Clinton, results in the daily loss of life and victimization of many, to include not only American citizens but also those attempting to immigrate to our country," Crane said. "These victims will never have their photos shown on TV, but their families' suffering is no less real."

Crane praised Trump for his willingness to meet with him and discuss his policies and goals for improving and aiding immigration enforcement.

"America has been lied to about every aspect of immigration in the United States," Crane concluded. "We can fix our broken immigration system, and we can do it in a way that honors America's legacy as a land of immigrants, but Donald Trump is the only candidate who is willing to put politics aside so that we can achieve that goal."

Speaking to the families of those who have lost loved ones at the hands of illegal immigrant criminals Saturday afternoon in Houston, Texas, Donald Trump eviscerated the nation’s leaders for failing to protect American lives.

Speaking at a luncheon hosted by The Remembrance Project, the Republican presidential nominee said the victims of illegal alien crime had been “forced into the shadows” because politicians and media at large refuse to hear their stories and validate their grievances. Expressing his support for the families in their “lonely fight for justice,” Trump promised to stand with them and hold the government accountable for its “most fundamental duty” — to protect American lives.

“Our nation should not accept one lost American life because our country failed to enforce its laws.”

“There are a lot of numbers in the immigration debate. But let me give you the most important number of all,” Trump said. “That most important number of all is the number of American lives it is acceptable to lose in the name of illegal immigration. Let me tell you what that number is: ZERO,” he added. “Our nation should not accept one lost American life because our country failed to enforce its laws.”

Speaking softly to the audience members gathered at the event, Trump said that The Remembrance Project, which advocates for families who have lost loved ones at the hands of illegal immigrants, helped to bring attention to an issue that has become a “personal passion” for him.

“I have met many incredible people during the course of this campaign. But nothing has moved me more deeply than the time I’ve spent with the families of The Remembrance Project, and the incredible strength and courage you’ve shown in your often lonely fight for justice,” Trump said. “You are heroes. And your actions will help us to save the next thousand American citizens from losing their brothers, sisters, sons, daughters or parents.”

Trump lambasted the policies of the Obama administration and the policies promoted by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton that have led to the release of nearly 13,000 criminal aliens between 2008-2014 back into the U.S. after their home countries refused to take them back, according to a report from The Boston Globe. Decrying Clinton’s plans for "total amnesty," protecting Sanctuary Cities and authorizing a "catch-and-release" border policy, Trump called Clinton to account for her failures.

"Most of these 13,000 releases occurred on Hillary Clinton’s watch — she had the power and the duty to stop it cold and she didn’t do it," Trump told the grieving families. "Now, my opponent will never meet with you. She will never hear your stories. She will never share in your pain. She will only meet with the donors and the special interests and the open border advocates."

Trump promised to enforce the rule of law and work as an advocate for these families if he is elected on Nov. 8.

"Your cause and your stories are ignored by our political establishment because they are determined to keep our borders open at any cost. To them, your presence is just too inconvenient," Trump said. "This must end. And it must end right now. Not one more American life should be given up in the name of open borders."

Immediately after Trump’s speech, his campaign released a statement from Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions — a vocal Trump surrogate and fervent advocate for clamping down on illegal immigrant crime.

"This serious problem was well known to Hillary Clinton the entire time she was secretary of state. Yet she failed to stop this practice when she had the duty and responsibility do so as secretary of state, failing to follow clear legal requirement passed by Congress," Sessions said. "Hillary Clinton must explain to the American people, and especially to the victims of these criminal aliens who were not deported, why she did not act to prevent these tragic events."

America’s immigration court judges allow one in three illegal immigrants charged with serious crimes — like rape and drunk driving — roam free in the U.S.

The judges released 32.9 percent of 5,530 illegal aliens charged with crimes since Oct. 1, 2015. That’s the highest percentage since at least 1998, according to Executive Office of Immigration Review data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

“They’re not giving them a legal status, but they’re letting them stay,” Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “So it’s like a de facto amnesty.”

If an immigration judge decides not to order a person’s deportation, the illegal immigrant may stay in the U.S. after serving any prison time determined in a criminal court.

Those illegal immigrants convicted of crimes are likely to re-offend, Vaughan said.

The data obtained by TRAC is consistent with a Boston Globe investigation that discovered 30 percent of 323 criminal illegal aliens released in New England from 2008 to 2012 committed new crimes, including rape and child molestation.

Illegal immigrants with criminal charges haven’t always had such a good shot at staying in the U.S. In 1998, immigration judges allowed only 11.8 percent of illegal immigrants with criminal charges stay in the U.S., according to TRAC. By 2008, that figure increased to 22 percent, and continued to climb each year of President Barack Obama’s presidency.

The increasing proportion of criminal illegal aliens allowed to stay in the U.S. reflects a broader trend of all illegal immigrants allowed to stay. Immigration courts — backlogged with nearly half a million cases — allowed 57 percent of all illegal immigrants before their courts to stay in the country in the first 10 months of 2016, the highest rate since at least 1998. (RELATED: Detainer Requests Plummeting Under Obama)

The U.S. attorney general appoints the country’s 273 immigration judges, without a Senate confirmation. Judges then fall under the Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review. The federal government considers most immigration offenses civil, not criminal, and judges have no ability to enforce what they order.

Immigration judges in some states and cities allow much higher rates of criminally charged illegal immigrants stay in the country. Oregon judges in 2016, for example, allowed 80 percent of the 63 illegal aliens charged with to crimes stay in the U.S. Oregon has about 30 sanctuary cities, counties and jurisdictions. Officials in such jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with federal authorities in the deportation process.

“I was not surprised to see that for example Oregon has a very low rate of deporting people, and one reason for that is it’s basically a sanctuary state,” Vaughan told TheDCNF.

Immigration judges in Tennessee only heard cases for 25 illegal aliens charged with crimes in 2016, but allowed 64 percent — nearly two in three — to avoid deportation. New York immigration judges allowed allowed 46 percent of 598 illegal immigrants charged with crimes to stay in the country.

Hawaii, by contrast, allowed 81 percent of illegal aliens with only immigration offenses to stay in the country, but ordered deportation for 81 percent of illegal aliens charged with other crimes, according to TRAC.

Louisiana and Georgia immigration judges were the most likely to order deportations for criminally charge aliens, at 92.4 percent and 83.4 percent, respectively.

At the local level, immigration judges in some cities, particularly sanctuary cities, allow illegal aliens with criminal charges to remain in the country at high rates.

Immigration court judges in Denver, Colo., were the most lenient. They allowed nearly 86 percent of illegal immigrants charged with a crime to stay in the country. Harlingen, Texas, courts allowed the second-highest rate of criminally charged illegal aliens to stay, 81.3 percent, followed by Portland’s 80.8 percent and Seattle’s 79.5 percent.

Most of the criminal illegal immigrants allowed to stay in the country in the fist 10 months of 2016 came from Mexico. Judges allowed 2,035 people from Mexico with criminal charges to remain in the U.S., followed by 391 from the Dominican Republic, 262 from Jamaica and 244 from El Salvador, according to TRAC.

It isn’t a coincident that judges are more lenient than they were two decades ago, Vaughan claimed. She says Obama has made “deliberate” policy changes “to give every illegal alien possible an opportunity to take advantage of the most generous due process possible and to give them every bite at the apple to try to win the right to stay in the United States.”

But criminal illegal aliens aren’t only released through the courts system. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the primary Department of Homeland Security entity responsible for deporting illegal aliens, released a total of 19,723 illegal immigrants in 2015, according to CIS. More than 200 of those people committed murder.

ICE released some of those criminal aliens because their home countries refused to take them back. ICE also sometimes fails to show up at local jails within 48 hours as required, at which point local authorities can no longer hold the illegal immigrants.

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WASHINGTON - Ninety-three percent of the unauthorized immigrants participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program who are eligible to apply for renewal have done so, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) reports in a new issue brief that examines the deferred action program as its fourth anniversary nears.

Since its launch on August 15, 2012, the DACA program has provided temporary relief from deportation and eligibility for work authorization to more than 728,000 young unauthorized immigrants, representing around half-if not more-of the he population MPI estimates is eligible to participate.

Drawing upon a unique methodology that assigns legal status to the foreign born in U.S. Census Bureau population surveys and permits analysis of key sociodemographic characteristics, DACA at Four: Participation in the Deferred Action Program and Impacts on Recipients offers the latest MPI estimates of populations potentially eligible for DACA; presents trends in application rates nationwide and by state, as well as by top countries of origin; and examines the impacts that DACA has had on its recipients.

Using the most current, 2014 Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) data and aging forward those who since have reached the minimum age required to apply for DACA, MPI estimates that 1.3 million young adults ages 15 and older were immediately eligible for DACA as of 2016. This number includes about 250,000 youth who have aged into eligibility since the program’s launch. Comparing these estimates against application data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), MPI estimates that 63 percent of the immediately eligible population (those meeting all the criteria that could be modeled in the data) had applied for DACA as of March 31.

MPI estimates that an additional 398,000 unauthorized youth meet all DACA criteria except for high school completion or school enrollment. These youth can qualify if they enroll in an adult education program (a development that cannot be modeled using Census data). Adding that group to the 1.3 million immediately eligible raises the potentially eligible population to 1.7 million- and as a result lowers the initial application rate to 48 percent. MPI estimates that 228,000 children ages 7 - 14 could become eligible for DACA in the future.

The vast majority of DACA recipients are applying for renewal. MPI estimates 581,000 of the 728,000 recipients of an initial two-year DACA grant have been in the program long enough to apply for renewal, with 539,000 of them doing so to date-a 93 percent renewal rate.

“At its four-year mark, DACA is a large-scale program that has succeeded in attracting broad participation and providing life-altering benefits to many unauthorized youth-as evidenced by the fact that 93 percent of those eligible to apply for renewal have done so,” said brief co-author Faye Hipsman, an MPI policy analyst.

“Still, almost half a million DACA-eligible individuals had not applied as of March 31, 2016, and several hundred thousand more could qualify if they enroll in an adult education program, suggesting that further outreach by service providers could broaden DACA’s reach,” said Randy Capps, who is director of research for U.S. programs.

Among the other findings:

• The DACA-eligible are concentrated in a small number of states, with California, Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois accounting for 59 percent of the 1.7 million who are currently potentially eligible to apply.
• Unauthorized youth from Mexico and Central America, along with Peru, have the highest application rates by country of origin. Mexicans, for example, account for 63 percent of the immediately eligible population but 78 percent of applications as of March. Application rates are generally very low for youth born in Asia, with China not even among the top 25 countries for which USCIS reported application data.
• The states with the highest application rates, exceeding 75 percent for the immediately eligible-Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon and Texas-are all Western states with a predominantly Mexican-born DACA-eligible population. By contrast states with the lowest application rates (below 50 percent) for the immediately eligible- Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and Florida-have more diverse unauthorized populations, with Mexicans and Central Americans in the minority.

Read the brief here.

For updated DACA data at U.S., state and county levels, as well as application rates by top countries of origin, check out these updated MPI DACA tools:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration will soon expand efforts to help Central American families and children legally immigrate to the United States....

... the administration will expand in-country refugee processing for families coming from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala...

The efforts are designed in part to combat the crush of tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied children caught crossing the border illegally ...

...more than 51,100 people traveling as families and more than 43,000 unaccompanied children have been caught illegally crossing the Mexican border...

Read the full article.

Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap

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New statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reveal that the surge of unaccompanied alien minors (UAMs) and family units crossing the southwest border is continuing undeterred. (See CBP Apprehension Statistics) The statistics, released last week, show that 5,669 UAMs — many coming from Central America — were apprehended crossing the southwest border in May. (MRC, June 17, 2016)

Additionally, some 6,788 family units were apprehended during the same time period. (Id.) Overall, the total number of all illegal alien apprehensions at the southwest border so far in FY 2016 is up roughly 19 percent from FY 2015 numbers during the same time period. (Id.) CBP reported catching 2,231 more illegal aliens in May than they did in April, which until last month was the record-holder for monthly apprehensions so far in FY2016. (Id.)

In a press release announcing the new statistics, CBP touted that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson recently visited Central America to reiterate that America's borders are not open to illegal migration. (See CBP Apprehension Statistics) However, the actions of the Obama administration say otherwise, as they have repeatedly refused to actually address the underlying causes of the illegal migration from Central America, notably the fact that UAMs and family units who cross the border know they will get to stay in the U.S. once they arrive.

Specifically, once Central American UAMs and family units are apprehended at the border, they receive papers setting court dates and are then released into the U.S. (FAIR Legislative Update, Dec. 1, 2015) These documents are known as "notices to appear," but illegal aliens refer to them as "permisos," or free passes, because they give permission to stay in the country while they await their appearance in already backlogged immigration courts. (Id.)

Testifying before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing late last year, Chris Cabrera of the National Border Patrol Council stated that "[these documents] are now known as the ‘notice to disappear' — 80 percent, 90 percent of those folks will not show up for that hearing." (See Cabrera Testimony, Oct. 21, 2015; FAIR Legislative Update, Oct. 27, 2015) The decisive solution to the crisis at the border, according to Cabrera, is for illegal border crossers to be "detained, adjudicated, and repatriated." (Cabrera Testimony, Oct. 21, 2015)