Oops–the Department of Homeland Security has absolutely no idea how many illegal immigrants it allows to stay in America through “prosecutorial discretion.”
In fact, DHS Inspector General, John Roth, actually admitted they don’t even attempt to maintain data.
Roth claims that the problem starts at the top: while Obama implemented new policies that helped gut enforcement of existing immigration laws through executive action, “the policies did not include a requirement to collect data.”
Obama also increased the use of prosecutorial discretion itself–meaning, essentially, that federal immigration authorities can decide who to release from federal custody without a charge, and who to keep. Often, it’s the former.
Whether or not you support increased illegal immigration, the problems with DHS are far bigger than partisan issues. Simply put, we need to know who’s coming into our country–and who’s being allowed to stay.
Even Roth admits, ““The Department may also be missing opportunities to strengthen its ability to remove aliens who pose a threat to national security and public safety.”
You think? They don’t even know who’s here.
But worse, even for the people DHS does know, they often don’t know anything about them–including things like foreign criminal records.
“[Immigration] field office personnel said they might not always have access to an individual’s criminal history in his or her country of origin,” Roth explains. “As a result, aliens convicted of or wanted for a felony committed in their home country, but not convicted of a felony or significant misdemeanor in the United States may not be identified as a DHS enforcement priority.”
So not only does DHS have absolutely no idea who’s coming to our country illegally, they admit that even out of the people they do know, lots of them could be criminals. Because DHS doesn’t really dig very far to see if someone’s illegally crossing a border because of something like an arrest warrant.
Amnesty and immigration is one thing. Laying out a welcome mat for foreign criminals because of negligence and incompetence is an entirely different–and far more dangerous–thing.
