Posted on 07/12/2015 2:13:21 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
There has been a fiery debate over the past few weeks about illegal aliens and crime, which has intensified with the murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco by a seven-time felon and five-time deportee as the direct result of the city's sanctuary policy.
What seems to have been overlooked in the back-and-forth on this is some of the very disturbing, actual data on crimes committed by illegal aliens, which should concern every American — particularly those who live in sanctuary cities like New Orleans and San Francisco — in Connecticut, Hartford and New Haven — that release criminal aliens rather than turning them over to the Department of Homeland Security.
As Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Study outlines, Department of Homeland Security records show that in just one eight-month period in 2014, more than 8,100 deportable aliens were released by sanctuary jurisdictions. Three thousand of them were felons, and 62 percent had criminal records. Nineteen hundred eventually were rearrested a total of 4,300 times on 7,500 different offenses.
Thus, these sanctuary policies directly victimized thousands of the residents of these sanctuary cities who were subjected to assaults, burglaries, sexual assaults, thefts and murders that would not have occurred except for these sanctuary policies.
But there is more. In 2005, at the request of several members of Congress, the Government Accountability Office prepared two reports on criminal aliens — legal and illegal — in prison for committing crimes in the United States. Those reports are very revealing. For example, the first report (GAO-05-337R) released on April 7, 2005, found that:
The percentage of federal prisoners who are criminal aliens is about 27 percent.
In 2004, there were 49,000 such prisoners in federal jails.
In 2002, the federal government gave reimbursements to the 50 states under the "State Criminal Alien Assistance Program" (SCAAP) for incarcerating another 77,000 illegal aliens in state prisons.
In 2002, the federal government reimbursed 750 local governments under SCAAP for incarcerating an additional 138,000 criminal illegal aliens, which jumped to 147,000 in 2003.
It is important to note these reported numbers "represent only a portion of the total population of criminal aliens who may be incarcerated at the local level," since the federal government does "not reimburse localities for all criminal aliens," and some states don't submit requests for reimbursement. So where were all of these criminal aliens from? According to the GAO report, the breakdown was as follows:
Federal prisons: Mexico (63 percent); Colombia (7 percent); the Dominican Republic (7 percent); Jamaica (4 percent); Cuba (3 percent); El Salvador (2 percent); Honduras, Haiti and Guatemala (each 1 percent), and the remaining 11 percent from 164 other countries.
State prisons: In the five states (Arizona, California, Florida, New York and Texas) incarcerating about 80 percent of SCAAP criminal aliens, the prisoners were from Mexico (58 percent); Cuba (5 percent); Dominican Republic (5 percent); El Salvador (4 percent); Jamaica (3 percent); Vietnam (2 percent); and the remaining 22 percent from 148 other countries.
Local jails: In the five local jails with the largest criminal illegal alien populations, the prisoners were from Mexico (65 percent); El Salvador (6 percent); Guatemala (3 percent); Honduras (2 percent); South Korea, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic and the Philippines (each 1 percent); and the remaining 20 percent from 193 other countries.
Thus, it is clear that criminal aliens already represent more than a quarter of all of the prisoners in federal prisons, and are present in large numbers in state and local jails.
The second GAO report (GAO-05-646R), released on May 9, 2005, looked at the crimes committed by 55,322 aliens who "had entered the country illegally and were still illegally in the country at the time of their incarceration in federal or state prison or local jail during fiscal year 2003."
The path of destruction weaved by these 55,322 illegal aliens was truly shocking. According to GAO, these criminal aliens:
Were arrested a total of 459,614 times, averaging about eight arrests per illegal alien.
97 percent had more than one arrest, while 26 percent had more than 11 arrests.
Committed almost 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging 13 offenses per illegal alien.
Zero percent of these illegal aliens were charged with committing 26 or more offenses.
Out of all of the arrests, 12 percent were for violent crimes such as murder, robbery, assault and sex-related crimes; 15 percent were for burglary, larceny, theft and property damage; 24 percent were for drug offenses; and the remaining offenses were for DUI, fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, weapons, immigration and obstruction of justice.
80 percent of the arrests occurred in just three states: California, Texas, and Arizona
Of course, these statistics reflect the criminal histories of aliens who were in prison. Unfortunately, in fiscal year 2013, the Obama administration released more than 36,000 convicted criminal aliens awaiting the outcome of deportation hearings upon an unsuspecting public, and another 30,558 in fiscal year 2014, according to the House Judiciary Committee.
The offenses for which they were convicted involved "dangerous drugs, assault and domestic violence, stolen vehicles, robbery, sex offenses, sexual assault, kidnapping, voluntary manslaughter, and even homicide." As the House Judiciary Committee outlined, more than a quarter of these aliens "were so called 'level 1s' according to the administration — the worst of the worst." And in 2013 alone, the administration didn't even bring removal proceedings against an additional 68,000 criminal aliens convicted of everything from homicide to sexual assault.
If the more than 134,000 aliens released by the administration in just the past two years follow the pattern of those aliens studied by the GAO in 2005, they will commit hundreds of thousands of more crimes, victimizing countless innocent Americans in crimes that could have been prevented.
How many Americans have to be assaulted, injured, raped or killed, or have their homes, cars and personal property burglarized, stolen or damaged, before the federal government and local governments like San Francisco will finally do what is necessary to lock up criminal aliens who are a danger to the safety and lives of the public?
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Hans von Spakovsky is a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation's Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, and manager of the think tank's Election Law Reform Initiative.
Just curious...in a sanctuary city...why would you have cops on the city payroll? It would seem like you’d dismiss twenty-percent of the cops....to save payroll funding....and just admit publicly that you only handle A and B type crimes...NOT C type. If you don’t want to put non-citizens into a jail....just admit that publicly....let the judges off the hook and give the arrested guy a box lunch as you dump him off at some city park to repeat his actions.
Trump needs to have charts standing behind him as he speaks. I think the visuals will have a greater impact on people.
Then who would shoot your dog.?
Great article by Hans von Spakovsky. Thanks for posting.
George Zimmerman, I suppose.
Some sanctuary cities need that designation to keep ANY cops on the payroll; once they were being evacuated by taxpayers and their employers, there was nobody left to pay the bills. Instead of shrinking like Detroit (with the accompanying layoffs), they traffick in a bunch of Third Worlders (to keep housing, schools, and store aisles occupied), then reach out for county, state, or federal aid. This is how taxpayers end up subsidizing the Third World baby boom that is producing the next generation of “Americans” (while Americans themselves bemoan the fact that they can’t afford children).
Without illegals whole sections of NJ would be abandoned; our government worker caste would never accept that.
That really is not surprising. Illegals break the law to get into this country in the first place--why would they NOT continue their pattern of lawbreaking once in the country?
The whole problem with counting only the bodies occupying real estate rather than the kind of people who are in that place is that illegals are a net drain on resources.
Government needs working citizens in order to keep functioning. Citizens pay taxes and other fees, as well as provide the workforce for the government. For government to adopt policies that encourages increasing numbers of illegals to come in and drain its resources (which are really citizens' resources) is self-destructive.
That real estate would be better off sitting empty than being filled with illegals.
I absolutely agree with you; even worse, NJ has to reach out to other sources to provide for these illegals. It is the government workers (including politicians) that refuse to accept downsizing (since they have unmarketable skills to do anything else, and are our upper middle class in NJ today). Basically “sanctuaries” have made a deal with the Devil where they will accept food stamps, Section 8 vouchers, and federal aid for school lunches etc. as their new “economy” (viewing it as better than managing barren wastelands).
A very interesting article.
Unfortunately, seems to bounce back and forth between criminal statistics for aliens and for illegal aliens. It’s not always clear which group he’s talking about, which weakens his argument.
BTTT.
Bookmark
Da Gub'mint no dat.
These GAO reports don’t reflect what’s going on now. I’m sure it’s much worse. But Zero would rather fiddle while we burn. Actually, he’s probably enjoying the carnage.
For example, the first report (GAO-05-337R) released on April 7, 2005... A ten year old report. It is so much worse now.
HRoss tried that. Better to appeal to the emotional thinkers with words and life stories.
Thanks to Ann Coulter.
Her ‘adios’ book started it all.
Illegal aliens......just doing violent crimes many Americans won’t do.
I think the most harm is to the rule of law.
When did it become acceptable for some in government to pick & choose which laws they enforce?
The rule of law died when the sanctuary movement began.
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