Illegals as Released Criminals

For John, BLUF:  No one seems to have come up with a solution to illegal immigration.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From The Washington Times we have "DHS released another 30,000 criminal aliens onto streets".  For 2014.  DHS being the Department of Homeland Security.♠  The number seems huge.  However, I then checked on overall incarceration rates for the US, where the latest is from 2010.  We had 2,266,800 (two and a quarter million) in federal, state and local lockups, so this release was 1.32% of the total.

Here is the lede:

Federal immigration officers released another 30,000 immigrants with criminal records last year, following the 36,000 it released in 2013, the government announced Wednesday — though it promised to take steps to cut down on the problem.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that handles detention and removal of illegal immigrants, said it will no longer allow overcrowding to be the main reason a dangerous illegal immigrant is released, and will require a top supervisor to approve the cases of any serious criminals that officers want to release.

Here is the breakdown of those released in 2013, by crime.

ICE didn’t release a breakdown of criminal offenses of the new 30,000 on Wednesday, but among the 36,000 released in 2013 were 193 homicide convictions, 426 sexual assault convictions, 303 kidnapping convictions and 16,070 convictions for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

One would assume that these illegal immigrants serve their sentence and then are released.  But, not everyone can be deported back to their home nation.  Some nations are not willing to take back criminals.  So, they go out into our nation.

This is one more indication that we do not have this illegal immigration thing under control.  I wonder if there is a CBO or GAO report on the overall cost of our illegal immigration programs, and the projected costs of alternatives being offered?

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Yes, I am one of those who thinks that the Department of Homeland Security was a mistake.  The theoretical increase in coordination us offset by the bureaucratic drag.  My recollection is that President Bush was opposed to this centralizing, but Congress pushed it on him.  The 107th Congress gave us the Homeland Security Act.