U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents making an arrest. (photo: Soluciones Magazine)
ICE
Data Shows Half of Immigrants Arrested in Raids Had Traffic Convictions or No
Record
By Maria Sacchetti and Ed
O'Keefe, The Washington Post
29 April 17
About
half of the 675 immigrants picked up in roundups across the United States in
the days after President Trump took office either had no criminal convictions
or had committed traffic offenses, mostly drunken driving, as their most
serious crimes, according to data obtained by The Washington Post.
Records
provided by congressional aides Friday offered the most detailed look yet at
the backgrounds of the individuals rounded up and targeted for deportation in
early February by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents assigned to
regional offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, San Antonio and New York.
Two
people had been convicted of homicide, 80 had been convicted of assault, and 57
had convictions for “dangerous drugs.” Many of the most serious criminals were
given top billing in ICE news statements about the operation.
The
largest single group — 163 immigrants convicted of traffic offenses — was
mentioned only briefly. Over 90 percent of those cases involved drunken
driving, ICE said Friday. Of those taken into custody in the raids, 177 had no
criminal convictions at all, though 66 had charges pending, largely immigration
or traffic offenses.
The
raids were part of a nationwide immigration roundup dubbed Operation Cross
Check, which accounts for a small portion of the 21,362 immigrants the Trump
administration took into custody for deportation proceedings from January
through mid-March.
The
two-month total represents a 32 percent increase in deportation arrests over
the same period last year. Most are criminals, administration officials have
said. But 5,441 were not criminals, double the number of undocumented
immigrants arrested for deportation a year earlier. The administration has
released a detailed breakdown of the criminal records only of the raids in
early February.
Trump
has said that public safety threats are his top priority. Shortly after he was
elected, he vowed to first deport serious criminals from the United States.
But
critics say immigration agents instead have also targeted students, parents of
U.S. citizens who do not have serious criminal records and minor offenders.
“That
makes me so angry,” said Kica Matos, a spokeswoman for the Fair Immigration
Reform Movement, which is organizing demonstrations Monday to protest Trump’s
immigration policies. She said that many of the DUI convictions are years-old
and that the data “confirms our worst fears, which is that this administration is
really trying to deport as many as possible regardless of whether they have a
criminal record.”
President
Barack Obama also deported thousands of people who never committed crimes, but
toward the end of his administration, he imposed strict new rules that
prioritized the arrest of criminals.
The
Trump administration has said the current president also wants to prioritize
deporting criminals. But officials add that anyone in the United States
illegally could be detained and deported.
“As
Secretary Kelly has made clear, ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories
of removable aliens from potential enforcement,” said ICE spokeswoman Jennifer
Elzea, referring to Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly. “All of those in
violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest,
detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United
States.”
ICE
arrested immigrants across the United States in February as part of Operation
Cross Check, an initiative that seeks to detain immigrants that also occurred
during the Obama administration.
Jessica
M. Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies,
which favors limits on immigration, said ICE is properly enforcing immigration
laws by arresting criminals and people in the United States without papers.
“Those
are legitimate reasons to remove people,” she said. “ICE officers are no longer
operating under the restraints imposed by the Obama administration. They’re not
forced to look the other way when they encounter people who are removable.”
Congressional
aides said the information from ICE follows months of frustration from
lawmakers that the agency is not responding fast enough to requests for
information.
After
initially being supportive of Kelly, many Democrats have turned on him,
believing he is being less than forthcoming about his sprawling department’s
moves to implement Trump’s immigration policy.
Kelly,
a retired Marine general, shot back at congressional critics last week in a
speech at George Washington University.
“If
lawmakers do not like the laws they’ve passed and we are charged to enforce,
then they should have the courage and skill to change the laws,’’ Kelly said.
“Otherwise they should shut up and support the men and women on the front
lines.’’
That
kind of approach “wasn’t a constructive way to deal with Congress,” House
Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said in an interview Friday. Democrats, he
said, are frustrated by Trump’s immigration policies but are unable to change
laws because they don’t currently control Congress.
“That
kind of language ought to be jettisoned,” Hoyer said.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
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