Over 179,000 undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of criminal offenses, including violent crimes, are still freely moving around the United States. This is according to lawmakers and Sarah Saldana, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with numerous reports suggesting that new crimes are being committed every day by these individuals.
On Wednesday Saldana told Congress that ICE is now catching and deporting far fewer undocumented immigrants than in the past. The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Senator Chuck Grassley, also revealed during a hearing on Wednesday that the number of undocumented criminal immigrants who have already been served with final orders of removal totals around 179,029. The actual number of criminal undocumented immigrants is in the millions.
Alaskan Republican senator Jeff Sessions, who is also on the committee, says it is well known that these criminals are committing new crimes “every day”. In August the Washington Free Beacon revealed that the Obama administration had been hiding the release of undocumented immigrants who were also violent offenders and that it was only in the last few months that it had started to notify local law enforcement agencies.
Grassley claims that the administration is still hiding information with regard to the issue, as “several administration officials informed the committee they were unable to testify because the hearing wasn’t ‘in response to a particular crisis’.”
Lawmakers say President Obama continues to delay deporting criminal immigrants, who continue to be released back into the community. “When will enough be enough?” Grassley demanded.