CQ
By David Harrison
April 14, 2015
Immigration
and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldaña faced criticism from
both Democrats and Republicans at a House Judiciary Committee hearing
Tuesday, with one
side saying she had been too lax in enforcement and the other that she
had been too aggressive.
The
bipartisan anger – albeit over different aspects of the agency’s
mission – suggests that ICE remains a controversial law enforcement
agency, in no small part because
of Capitol Hill’s inability to enact new immigration laws, leaving much
of the policymaking to the Obama administration.
Republicans
criticized ICE and the administration for not moving quickly enough to
apprehend people in the country illegally who have been convicted of
serious crimes
or felonies. Under the administration’s stated policy, law enforcement
resources should be directed to deporting those convicted of serious
crimes rather than other people with strong ties to the United States
who are living here without proper authorization.
Chairman
Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va., said the administration has released some
convicted criminals while their deportation proceedings are underway
rather than detaining
them, creating a dangerous environment for officers and communities.
Last year, 30,558 people convicted of serious crimes had been released
from custody after serving their time as they await deportation,
Goodlatte said.
“ICE
officers must wake up in the early hours of the morning, put their
lives at risk, and go out into the community to apprehend convicted
criminal aliens that have been
released onto the streets,” he said.
In
the past, ICE relied on a program known as Secure Communities, which
required local law enforcement officers to hold those convicted of
crimes until they were picked
up by ICE. But the program came under criticism from states and cities
that claimed that Secure Communities made it almost impossible for
police to gain the trust of immigrant communities. Local governments
were also concerned that they were legally liable
for holding people beyond the terms of their sentence.
Roughly
200 jurisdictions now refuse to cooperate with federal immigration
agents. Last year, local governments denied more than 12,000 requests to
detain people, Saldaña
said. Most notably, California enacted the TRUST Act in 2013, which
limits the state’s cooperation.
Last
year, the Obama administration abandoned Secure Communities and put in
place a new program, the Priority Enforcement Program, which relies
instead on voluntary cooperation
from local officials.
But
Republicans at the hearing blamed the new, voluntary program for the
release of thousands of people convicted of crimes who could have been
deported. Several, including
Goodlatte, called the decision to move away from Secure Communities
shortsighted.
Secure
Communities, Goodlatte said, “was a simply and highly successful
program to identify criminal aliens once arrested and jailed. It
protected American citizens and
immigrants alike from aliens who were a danger to their communities.”
Saldaña
said she hoped local jurisdictions could be persuaded to detain those
convicted of crimes while they await deportation. In some cases, though,
their release had
been ordered by an immigration court. In others, the agency was
complying with a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that stated that the
government could not indefinitely detain illegal immigrants convicted of
a crime if their home countries refused to take them.
Democrats,
for their part, objected to the agency’s detention of women and
children who flocked across the Southern border last summer fleeing
violence and drug cartels
in Central America.
Rep.
Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said she was concerned about “the department’s
current policy of holding women and children in family detention for
extended periods of time
– eight, nine and 10 months – even after they have established a
credible or reasonable fear of persecution.”
Lofgren
said she was particularly concerned about the new family detention
facility in Dilley Texas, where she said one woman has already tried to
commit suicide.
Saldaña
said she was satisfied that the conditions at Dilley were “humane.” She
said a shortage of immigration judges was to blame for the long periods
of time that families
are forced to wait in detention centers.
The courts are dealing with a backlog of 480,000 cases, she said.
“To the extent there is anything you can do to help those courts get more judges, that would help us,” she said.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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