Rep. Lamar Smith Issues Statement Supporting ICE Fugitive Operations

The Fugitive Operations Team of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stepped up their enforcement of violators of immigration laws, and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith issued a statement on Wednesday supporting the department’s efforts.

In Smith’s statement, the Congressman cited ICE’s ability to reduce the backlog of fugitive aliens from 634,000 in fiscal year 2007 to 554,000. It was the first-ever reduction of the backlog population.

It is critical that ICE continue to prioritize the arrests of fugitive aliens, whether or not they also happen to have criminal records. To give non-criminal fugitives a pass is to send the message that a judge’s deportation order doesn’t matter; it is a message of amnesty for lawbreakers.

Smith said that ICE’s record demonstrates that the teams are “successfully carrying out this mission” of finding and deporting illegal aliens.

The full statement can be found at the Republican House Judiciary Committee’s website.