Instead of forcing nations to take back 19,723 illegal immigrants convicted of many crimes including rape and murder, the administration simply let them go, just a quarter of the tens of thousands of criminal illegals set free in the past three years, a House oversight committee revealed Thursday.
Outraged with the administration’s actions, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told top Obama aides at a hearing, “Pull the trigger…get rid of them.”
He described the steady release of convicted illegal immigrants a national scandal that the White House knows about but ignores.
And he revealed that while the law requires the administration to yank visa privileges from “recalcitrant” countries when they won’t accept citizens the United States is trying to deport, top officials instead are “playing nice” in diplomatic channels.
House OGR committee reveals that 13,511 criminals were released by ICE b/c home countries refuse to take them back. https://t.co/P0QVJPBUWP
— Jessica Vaughan (@JessicaV_CIS) July 14, 2016
He gave an example of Liberia. He said that the U.S. has been blocked in deporting 52 Liberians illegally in the country and convicted of crimes. He said that the administration should stop granting visas to let Liberians enter the United States and rip up the annual $125 million aid check Washington gives the country.
Addressing Michele Thoren Bond, assistant secretary of State for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Chaffetz said, “you’re so worried about playing nice instead of obeying the law. Get rid of them!”
Bond said that the threats State can use are “very powerful” tools, but Chaffetz said State isn’t using them.
“When one of those 52 people commits a crime, a rape, a murder, a DUI, that’s on you, because they shouldn’t be here in the United States of America. You cannot look those people in the eye, Americans who pay their taxes, who who work here, who are citizens, and you’re so worried about playing nice instead of implementing the law these people are committing more crimes,” he added.
Overall, he said, there are 86,228 criminal aliens who have committed 231,074 crimes who have been released back into the United States. He said that in the last year alone, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement let 19,723 criminal illegals go.
“In last year alone, ICE, Immigration Customs Enforcement, released—keep in mind these people committed crimes or were convicted of these crimes, they’re in our possession and we release them out into the public—19,723 criminal aliens, who among them had 64,197 convictions, including 934 sex offenses, 804 robberies, 216 kidnappings, and 196 homicide-related convictions. How do you look the parents in the eye of somebody who was murdered—their son or daughter—because the government said, ‘Well, you know, it’s in the best interest to just let them go back into the public here in the United States,'” said the chairman.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
