House Panel: 86,000 Criminal Aliens Released Over 3 Years, 19,723 in FY 15

April 28, 2016

At a hearing today, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said “In a three-year period, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released more than 86,000 criminal aliens into the American public…These are people that were here illegally, got caught committing a crime, were convicted of that crime and instead of deporting them, they were just released back out in the United States of America.” Chairman Chaffetz said the released aliens had been convicted of over 231,000 crimes.

“In 2015, 196 of these people were convicted of homicide, and ICE released them back into the public rather than deporting them…124 of those that were released between fiscal year 2010 and 2015 went on to commit homicide…In 2013, ICE released 36,007 criminal aliens…As of September 2014, 5,700 of those individuals went on to commit additional crimes,” Chaffetz said.  

The Center for Immigration Studies released a report yesterday noting that the 19,723 criminal aliens released in FY 2015 had a total of 64,197 convictions. This included 12,661 for alcohol/drug DUI, 8,234 for violent crimes and 208 for homicide.

The report also said “While the total number of (FY 2015) releases is lower than the past two years, since the number of arrests has declined quite dramatically, the rate of releases is approximately the same — meaning that this is no progress at all, and certainly will be no consolation for the victims of these criminal aliens…In 2015, ICE made 119,772 arrests, or just half the number of arrests made in 2013 (232,287).”

Legislation now before Congress to retroactively reduce minimum sentencing requirements would release from federal prisons tens of thousands of criminal aliens. Although the aliens are deportable, many would be released to the streets under Obama Administration policies.