Two weeks ago, Nicholas Riccardi at the Associated Press basically gave an open mic to immigration amnesty groups who pretend to believe that the Obama administration has been deporting more immigrants who are here illegally per year than previous administrations did. Some of the groups involved are moving to disruptive tactics which look more like attempts at mob rule than those employed in a civil society.
Today, several center-right news outlets and blogs are reporting that the Center for Immigration Studies has reviewed information recently released by Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm. Unsurprisingly, CIS has found far more laxness in deportation efforts. But what may surprise many, and what should be reported by AP and other establishment press outlets if they have any consistency and integrity, is how nonchalant the administration has been in releasing hardened criminals onto America's streets. Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times appears to have been the first to report on situation on Sunday:
68,000 illegal aliens with criminal records caught and released
Obama policy weak on enforcement
Immigration agents tried to deport only about a fourth of the cases they encountered in 2013, said a report being released Monday from the Center for Immigration Studies that shows just how much President Obama’s policies have cut down on potential enforcement.
Jessica Vaughan, the report’s author, called it a form of “catch and release.” She said agents at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement received more than 720,000 hits on immigrants who could be eligible for deportation but filed charges against fewer than 195,000 of them.
Of those let go, 68,000 had criminal convictions on their records. All told, more than 870,000 immigrants have been ordered removed from the U.S. but are defying the government and refusing to leave. “These numbers confirm that interior enforcement has been anything but tough — that in fact, ICE is releasing more illegal aliens and more criminal aliens than they’re trying to remove,” said Ms. Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates a crackdown on immigration.
The American Immigration Council, though, said the numbers were “completely misleading” and that many of those ICE agents encountered were likely kicked out of the country even if they weren’t officially put into deportation proceedings.
Dinan allowed AIC to elaborate further. Its take on things appears to be based on sheer fantasy, which is why I haven't included it.
What CIS has found certainly which deserves wide press distribution if the goal is really to inform the American public of the real-world results of the Obama administration's policies. If AP doesn't want to take CIS's word for what it found, the wire service can go to the same stats CIS did. If it does, it will almost certainly obtain identical results.
The educated and experienced guess here is that AP and most other establishment press outlets will ignore CIS's work, and continue to be unabashed cheerleaders for amnesty.
From here, the very idea of amnesty is absurd as long as there's no meaningful attempt to enforce border security. Without border security, one amnesty will simply lead to another, and another, and another ...
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
