Goodlatte: Administration's Immigration Enforcement Policies Threaten Public Safety

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today delivered the following opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on “Oversight of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” Chairman Goodlatte: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement—ICE—is the federal agency that is charged with enforcing the immigration laws of this nation.  Its mission statement is “to protect America from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety.” Its website boasts enforcement of over 400 statutes and touts the agency’s focus on “smart immigration enforcement” and “combating the illegal movement of people and goods.”  This sounds like an agency that is committed to devoting every available resource to vigilantly protect the American public. Yet, under the policies of this President, safety and security for Americans appear to be far less important than the so-called immigration enforcement “priorities” which result in hundreds of thousands of unlawfully present and criminal aliens remaining in our communities. “Smart” enforcement does not include allowing nearly 370,000 known convicted criminal aliens to walk the streets.  And it defies common sense to designate removable aliens arrested for serious crimes as “low priorities” because they have not yet been convicted.  They remain threats to the public, despite the lack of a conviction. Any policy that notifies violators in advance that they will not be prosecuted is simply unacceptable.  How is that “smart” enforcement when the offenders know there are no consequences for their unlawful actions?  It only encourages similar conduct by others. ICE cannot combat illegal immigration by refusing to arrest those who have knowingly violated our immigration laws, or by releasing over 86,000 convicted criminal aliens over the last three years.  These are not policies that protect Americans and help secure our borders. During the last oversight hearing before this Committee on April 14, 2015, Director Saldaña testified that ICE released 30,558 criminal aliens in FY 2014 and that those aliens had a combined total of 79,059 criminal convictions associated with them.  The Committee recently learned from a source that the number of convictions associated with those aliens increased substantially to more than 92,000. And ICE has now admitted that it knew of the additional 13,000 convictions at the time Director Saldaña appeared before the Committee.  I look forward to hearing the Director’s explanation for the difference between what she told us then and what was known to the agency, since the data demonstrates that these criminal aliens pose an even greater threat to public safety than was represented to the Committee. Specifically, there were 17% more convictions for homicide-related offenses, 22% more for robbery, 27% more for sexual assaults, 17% more for aggravated assaults, and 11% more convictions for domestic violence assaults. The failure to report this critical information raises serious questions about whether ICE intentionally distorted the true nature of these threats to Congress and the American public. For the families of those killed by criminal aliens—those like Kate Steinle, Marilyn Pharis, Casey Chadwick, Sarah Root, and Josh Wilkerson—assurances of “smart” enforcement ring hollow. And sadly, the number of victims continues to increase. Also troubling is the fact that despite clear indications that ICE’s enforcement priorities are placing Americans at greater risk, the President’s budget request for FY 2017 asks for $138 million less to detain and remove aliens next year. And worse, last year ICE gave back $113 million in funds that had been specifically appropriated for detention and removal purposes. Consistent with his policy of non-enforcement, the President also requested $23 million less for the Fugitive Operations Program in FY 2017.  Fugitive Operations officers must locate and arrest criminal aliens, often in a high threat environment, after they have been released back into the community by sanctuary jurisdictions. With more than 300 sanctuary jurisdictions nationwide, there are more than enough removable criminal aliens to warrant the additional $23 million in funding for this important enforcement program. This Administration’s failure to allocate resources to critical program areas that directly impact ICE’s ability to keep criminal aliens off the street belies any assertion that public safety is a primary concern. Thank you for appearing today, Director Saldaña.  I look forward to your testimony, and to your responses to the concerns I have outlined, as well as the concerns and questions of the Members of this Committee. ###