VIDEO: Illegal Immigration is Not a Victimless Crime

Mothers who lost their children at the hands of criminal aliens tell their storiesWashington, D.C.  – The House Judiciary Committee today released a video on the real costs of the Obama Administration’s lack of immigration enforcement. In the video, Laura Wilkerson, whose son was tortured and murdered by an unlawful immigrant, and Michelle Root, whose daughter was killed by an unlawful immigrant who was driving drunk, discuss their stories and call on the Obama Administration to enforce the United States’ immigration laws. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z775Q9UhLY Background:

• Sarah Root was killed by an unlawful immigrant drunk driver on January 31, 2016. Only hours before her death, she graduated from college with a 4.0 average and a degree in investigations.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not consider her killer an enforcement priority and did not issue a detainer for his arrest. As a result, he posted a state bail bond and fled.

• Joshua Wilkerson was tortured and murdered in 2010 by an alien who had overstayed his visa for eight years.  The killer was arrested on a harassment charge only months before, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not take custody of him. The District Attorney who prosecuted the murder case couldn’t explain why ICE did not have an interest in him because her understanding was that ICE regularly reviewed the county jail roster.

• On Tuesday, April 19, 2016, the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee held a hearing on “The Real Victims of a Reckless and Lawless Immigration Policy: Families and Survivors Speak Out on the Real Cost of This Administration’s Policies.” At the hearing, members of the subcommittee examined the significant public safety threat posed by criminal aliens and heard from some of the victims they have left in their wake as a result of the Obama Administration’s abandonment of immigration enforcement and its failure to secure the border, including Michelle Root, mother of Sarah Root, and Laura Wilkerson, mother of Joshua Wilkerson.

• Under President Obama’s watch, DHS has issued a series of memoranda and policies that undermine the United States’ immigration laws, which allow thousands of criminal aliens to remain in the United States and continue their criminal activity.

• Earlier today, the House Judiciary Committee released new information showing that ICE released 19,723 criminal aliens with a total of 64,197 convictions in Fiscal Year 2015.