US Government Is Failing to Deport Criminals
[Guest post by DRJ]
The Houston Chronicle reported today on its comprehensive 8-month study of Houston criminal and immigration records that show federal immigration officials allowed up to 75% of the 3,500 Harris County Jail inmates who admitted they were in the country illegally to remain in the US instead of facing deportation. The released inmates include child molesters, rapists and drug dealers.
From the report:
• In 177 cases reviewed by the Chronicle, inmates who were released from jail after admitting to being in the country illegally later were charged with additional crimes. More than half of those charges were felonies, including aggravated sexual assault of a child and capital murder.
• About 11 percent of the 3,500 inmates in the review had three or more prior convictions in Harris County. Many had repeatedly cycled through the system despite a history of violence and, in some cases, outstanding deportation orders.
Immigration officials claim their officers are overworked, underpaid, and note they successfully deported 107,000 criminal aliens nationwide in FY 2008, including 8,226 from Houston. They estimate “between 300,000 and 450,000 inmates incarcerated in the U.S. are eligible for deportation each year” but only about 10% are screened.
And these numbers may be low given that the Houston Chronicle states the criminal alien screening process is based on previously deported suspects or a suspect’s voluntary admission that s/he is in the country illegally:
“The Houston Police Department, which runs the city’s jails, notifies ICE only about suspects with immigration warrants and previously deported felons.
Of the more than 80,000 bookings into Harris County Jail during the review period, about 3,500 — less than 5 percent — admitted to being in the country illegally. ICE filed paperwork to detain roughly 900 of the 3,500. During the review period, the agency also filed paperwork to detain 2,500 suspects not included in the database, indicating that many immigrants who are eligible for deportation do not disclose that they are here illegally.
ICE, however, could not confirm whether the inmates marked for ”holds” actually were deported.”
Harris County Sheriff-elect Adrian Garcia hasn’t decided whether he will continue to allow federal immigration officials to screen inmates at the Jail. His predecessor, the current Sheriff, authorized the screenings in late 2006 after the execution-style murder of Houston police officer Rodney Johnson by an illegal immigrant, a murder that outraged the police and the community.
Sheriff-elect Garcia’s election was one of a near sweep by Democrats of Harris County offices attributed to Obama’s win. If the Sheriff-elect ends the screening program, efforts to deport criminal aliens may be a rare and short-lived experiment in Houston.
— DRJ
Is Harris Co. part of USA Sutton’s AOR?
Another Drew (e3760b) — 11/16/2008 @ 3:11 pmIf so, why isn’t he prosecuting ICE officials for derilection of duty, and of endangering citizens by being complicit in putting known criminals back on the streets?
Johnny Sutton is the US Attorney for the Western District of Texas which includes El Paso, Pecos, Del Rio, San Antonio, Austin, Waco, and Midland-Odessa. Houston/Harris County is in the Southern District of Texas.
DRJ (a50047) — 11/16/2008 @ 3:57 pmAt what point do we need to take the law into our own hands if the ones paid to enforce the laws don’t enforce the laws?
rudytbone (8052af) — 11/16/2008 @ 3:58 pmComment by rudytbone — 11/16/2008 @ 3:58 pm
See: Jefferson, Thomas; Declaration of Independence.
Another Drew (e3760b) — 11/16/2008 @ 4:04 pmGeraldo Rivera is spitting on a picture of Michelle Malkin as we speak.
daleyrocks (5d22c0) — 11/16/2008 @ 4:16 pmObama taking office scares me, but the total failure that is Bush domestic policy and executive branch management disgusts me.
MTF (93d3b7) — 11/16/2008 @ 5:49 pmBut does it really make a difference?
I read something in the last 24 hours (I want to say it was in today’s edition of the Miami Herald, but a little voice tells me it was somewhere on line) to the effect that crime is rapidly increasing in at least some Central American countries as a knock on effect of gang members being deported to their home countries by the USA. As an incidental point, the article mentioned that almost all of them return to the States after a few months to rejoin their old gangs.
And remember, legal residents who commit a crime in the US are just as much subject to deportation as illegals.
kishnevi (ef009a) — 11/16/2008 @ 7:27 pmIt matters if you’re the unlucky victim of a crime committed by an illegal immigrant who should have been deported, but wasn’t … even if it’s just for a few months. Incarcerated illegal immigrants are overwhelmingly likely (90%+) to commit multiple offenses.
DRJ (a50047) — 11/16/2008 @ 7:41 pmComment by MTF — 11/16/2008 @ 5:49 pm
Some of us think that having the government operating in an incompetent manner is just fine.
Another Drew (e3760b) — 11/16/2008 @ 8:14 pmNot protecting the country from foreign threats is not fine.
I can always deal with disgust.
Being scared can be life-threatening.
Hold on to your seats. And go make your last few posts on illegal immigrants.
Obama on the floor of the senate:
Amphipolis (fdbc48) — 11/17/2008 @ 5:42 amIn fact, I will not support any bill that does not provide this earned path to citizenship for the undocumented population–not just for humanitarian reasons; not just because these people, having broken the law, did so for the best of motives, to try and provide a better life for their children and their grandchildren; but also because this is the only practical way we can get a handle on the population that is within our borders right now.
http://obama.senate.gov/speech/060403-floor_statement_3/
This kind of attitude displayed in Houston is becoming more and more popular…this stinks.
Recently the Trustees of Rancho Santiago Community College District voted to endorse the “California Dream Act.” The bill extends tuition fee benefits to in-state residents regardless of immigration status.
Gov. Schwarz…vetoed the bill, though. Good for him.
It’s a good thing for people to immigrate here and get on a path to citizenship. But now that path to citizenship is being obscured and its value downplayed by those we put in office. This is a most unfortunate fad.
Rich Bordner (9579d7) — 11/17/2008 @ 6:42 amGarcia did NOT win because of the Obama effect.
As a resident of Harris County, I voted straight party republican with ONE exception – I voted for Adrian Garcia. I wasn’t alone – while most of the local elections went about 51-49 democrat, Garcia won with about 58% of the vote. Why? Thomas is an idiot and had been at best ethically suspect, at worst a criminal.
What do I mean? How about having inmates build his fence for free? http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/13_undercover&id=5959018
How about sending out inappropriate emails, and then trying to cover his tracks by deleting 750,000 department emails in violation of state law? http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/13_undercover&id=6233364
I had no idea whether Garcia would be better, but Thomas was a local embarassment and frankly I’m glad he’s out of office.
dsh (9c232e) — 11/17/2008 @ 8:09 amRacists.
JD (b96a9e) — 11/17/2008 @ 8:19 amPardon my ignorance; Do they serve their time before they are deported?
Thomas (75417a) — 11/17/2008 @ 9:19 amGreat article. You can not drive & pound this issue often enough. Keep it up. Not a day goes by where there is not another horror story occurring somewhere in America concerning this issue, demonstrating America & Americans being abused.
WAKE UP AMERICA – with 12-20-million+ illegal aliens in this country – we have no real Rule of Law.
With over 660,000 foreigners with DEPORTATION ORDERS (including Barack Obama’s aunt) defying those Orders (and our so-called government doing nothing to find them, deport them)- we have no real Rule of Law.
With Harris County (above) releasing criminal illegal aliens and failing to cooperate with Fed ICE officials to deport these crinimals (and where stated above – “Immigration officials claim their officers are overworked, underpaid, and note they successfully deported 107,000 criminal aliens nationwide in FY 2008, including 8,226 from Houston. They estimate “between 300,000 and 450,000 inmates incarcerated in the U.S. are eligible for deportation each year” but only about 10% are screened.”) – we have no real rule of law.
Based on the above, only a fool would argue that we actually have a real Rule of Law anymore in America. Well guess what? If we have NO real Rule of Law – we then in fact are well down the path to having ANARCHY!
Thus we have a government that does NOT represent, serve or really care about the American citizen, American People, but instead does everything it can to represent and serve illegal aliens. Can you say SANCTUARY CITIES? AMNESTY?
What good is YOUR citizenship,YOUR right to vote, or what good is that government, if that goverment FAILS to: secure our borders, enforce our laws, turns a blind eye to illegal aliens crossing our borders, stealing our Social Security #s, taking our jobs, lowering our wages, releases criminal illegal aliens without turning them over for deportation, does not try to deport them – knowing they are criminals and also even with 660,000 deportaion ORDERS, but INSTEAD bends over backward to give them benefits, provides them Sancuary Cities, and then wants to give them AMNESTY and CITIZENSHIP.
PEOPLE that is a government that is a FRAUD! A government that NO LONGER is LEGITIMATE! Can YOU say PHONEY? WE have brave & dedicated soldiers fighting, getting maimed and getting killed – over in two countries (and serving in many others), yet it is a government that does virtually NOTHING meaningful to secure & protect our own borders.
This was a dire problem before 911. Before our economy CRASHED. IT is now a DANGEROUS problem, that will become a DEADLY problem (see HBO’s movies “The Second Civil War” (1997) and “Path to Paridise” (1997)), if we do not demand that our Constitution and laws be enforced IMMEDIATELY and our borders get secured and protected!
To see how insane and dangerous – the establishment ACTUALLY is – (that’s both major parites, Barack Obama is tweedledee & John McCain was tweeldedumb) on this issue of ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, check out this article “LET THEM IN – Three New Books Argue That Open Borders Serve The National Interest” by Thomas Brom, from his monthly column “Full Disclosure”, that appeared in the August 2008 issue of the California Lawyer Magazine. (This is our largest state, with the largest popluation of lawyers.) Here is the link to that article: http://www.callawyer.com/index.cfm?NewIssueDate=08-01-08
On August 14, 2008 I wrote & submitted a Reply/Rebuttal letter to the Editor regarding “LET THEM IN”. California Lawyer contacted me to confirm that I authored the letter and indicated that it was considering publishing my letter. However, CALIFORNIA LAWYER elected not to publish my letter. Here is that letter.
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Letter to the Editor:
Thomas Brom’s “Let Them In, Over Taken By Events – O-B-E,” August, is spin. Spin out of control. First, America already generously Let’s Them In, granting legal resident status and naturalized citizenship every year, to about 2.5 million immigrants. Significantly more than any other nation. Second, Mr. Brom’s “Let Them In” theme reminded me of the callous quip about a woman getting raped: “Hey, why fight it, just sit back, relax and enjoy it.” That theory’s a non-starter, readily proven again by the 1993 rape, then murder, of Jennifer Ertman (14) and Elizabeth Pena (16), by illegal alien gang member Jose Ernesto Medellin (now 33). Texas just executed him. More recent, there’s SF’s triple murder of the Bologna family in June 2008, LA’s murder of Jamiel Shaw, Jr., in March 2008, and Newark’s execution-style murders of three college students in August 2007. (Illustrative, not exhaustive.) All the product of insane sanctuary city policies coddling and harboring convicted criminal illegal aliens. City, state and fed officials all have blood on their hands. Third, Mr. Brom’s piece referred to three books advocating open borders, published in 2007-8. I call Mr. Brom and raise him: Michelle Malkin’s Invasion (2002), Victor Davis Hanson’s Mexifornia: A State of Becoming (2003) and Pat Buchanan’s State of Emergency (2006). Fourth, what happened to – the Rule of Law? That America is a nation of laws, not men. That no man is above the law, and that’s what separates America from the rest of the world. Let them in? Open borders? Strange arguments coming from a lawyers’ magazine, but guess we’re just living in the world of Superman Bizarro. Fifth, we have not been O-B-E, but in fact have had decades of deceit, denial, dysfunction and dereliction of duty (maybe by design NAFTA, NAU, SPP), from all three branches of our federal government. Example: Plyler v. Doe, 457 US 202 (1982), a 5/4 Brennan opinion that admitted the fed’s total failure on illegal immigration, flew in the face of Fong Yu Ting (cited in Brom’s piece, but curiously absent from Plyler), opened the floodgates (see fnt. 2 in Plyler dissent, estimating 3-12 million illegal aliens as of 1981), and denied Texas the natural law remedy of self help. Then California’s Prop 187, torpedoed by a single federal judge. Example: the 1986 bi-partisan Simpson-Mizzoli bill that graciously gave amnesty to 3 million+ illegal aliens, and promised American citizens that it would be – a one-time fix. Can you say Shamnesty? Because that was a fraud, fixed nothing and spawned another 12-20 million+ illegals. Example: the recent 5/4 USSC opinions of Boumediene v. Bush and Dada v. Mukasey, foolishly giving more rights and opening further our courts, to terrorist combatants and illegals, thus making even longer ques for Americans to use their own courts. (See “[Fed] Circuit Judges Decry Immigration Case ‘Tsunami’” by Tony Mauro, 8/12/08 Legal Times and “New Nightmare Census Projections Reveal CHAIN MIGRATION Still Choking Our Future” by Roy Beck, 8/14/08 NumbersUSA.) Example: The dereliction of Presidents Carter to G.W. Bush on this issue, most notably their failure to prosecute cheating employers who hire illegals and refuse to use E-Verify.
Separation of powers, the so-called checks & balances? Phooey! The Rule of Law? Phooey! We are trillions in debt, yet the politicos and judges never ask, who or how we will pay for their frolics. We get the shaft from all three branches, plus we get to pay the “check” for the actually not so cheaper labor. The same is true for too many state, county and city governments/officials (sanctuary cities); the media (Mr. Brom’s own “It’s why an editor… may choose to bury a story rather than put it on the front page.”); and, the big corp bandits & pirates (that out-source American jobs, hire the illegals and push for more H-1B visas to in-source more foreign workers). The Dems want more voters; the Repubs (and US Chamber of Commerce) want cheap labor. It can be argued, we are well down the road to anarchy. (See HBO’s “The Second Civil War” (1997).) But the Will of the People has always been clear: STOP IT! Most recently rising up to stop the bogus bi-partisan “comprehensive” shamnesty bill. Yet all ever required was leadership and integrity. To simply apply reason, enforce our existing laws, and follow the advice of Deputy Barney Fife (of Andy of Mayberry): “Nip it. Nip it. Nip it in the bud.” The situation then would have been – the problem that never was.
But that takes courage. Instead, our politicos have chosen to pick the low hanging fruit, and to come up with one scam, scheme and bogus compromise, after another. We must look in the mirror. We must ask: Are we still capable of governing ourselves? Because at present, America has no real Rule of Law – with 12-20 million illegal aliens, it would be foolish to argue otherwise. Fact is, everything has been reduced to politics. Because if baseball used to be America’s pastime, it can be readily argued that today, our pastime now is – lying, cheating, stealing & spin. And it’s everywhere. And it’s destroying our American constitution, country, communities, culture and courts. And it’s killing us.
Open borders – NO! Enforce our laws – YES! Si se puede!
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WAKE UP AMERICA – WE no longer have a REAL Rule of Law in America. And if we have no REAL Rule of Law, WE are well down the path to ANARCHY! Go watch HBO’s “The Second Civil War” – WE are running out of time to take OUR country back.
YOU (or YOUR loved one(s)) might be the next VICTIM of our insane immigation & Sanctury City policies.
Gary L. Zerman (55474e) — 11/17/2008 @ 11:36 amUnfortunately, the example of how to enforce the law and why the law should be enforced needs to start at the top. If we have a leftist illuminati president who doesn’t believe in the Constitution and what it stands for, then how can we expect people under him who are in positions of authority to do their jobs properly?
Jeff (49888f) — 11/19/2008 @ 11:22 am