ACLU Questions DHS Arrest Statistics

Courthouse News reported: The Immigration and Homeland Security departments refuse to release public documents about mass arrests of alleged "criminal aliens" in the Imperial Valley. Immigration officials claim that 80 percent of the 286 people arrested in the 3-day "enforcement surge" had "prior convictions for serious or violent crimes," but the ACLU says it has reason to doubt that. The ACLU sued the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security in Federal Court, demanding documents on the 3-day roundup of immigrants in December 2009. "ICE’s enforcement operations ostensibly targeting ‘criminal aliens’ have historically resulted in a disproportionate number of arrests of individuals without any criminal records at all and of individuals with only minor criminal convictions," the ACLU says.