A new report from the Boston Globe shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers may have lied to Congress and the public about the likelihood of criminal immigrants, who should have been deported, to re-commit violent crimes when released into the general population.
The Boston Globe reviewed the cases of immigrants who had been set free in New England from 2008-2012, rather than being deported to their native countries.
Of the 323 criminal immigrants tracked, 30 percent were found to re-commit violent crimes, “including rape, attempted murder and child molestation.”
ICE does not normally publish the criminal records of immigrants, and the Globe only learned the names of the 323 case studies by suing the federal government to release that information back in 2013.
ICE argues a 2001 Supreme Court ruling makes it illegal to indefinitely jail immigrants and will release them into the general population if not deported within six months.
The Globe also found that the 30 percent of re-offenders have a high-likelihood of committing the same type of crimes, against the same victims.
The Globe found that a Massachusetts man was supposed to be deported after he served jail time for bashing his ex-girlfriend on the head with a hammer — but ICE released him in October 2009. Three months later, he found the ex-girlfriend and stabbed her repeatedly. A Rhode Island man who had served prison time for a home invasion was also released from immigration detention in 2009; five years later, he was arrested for attacking his former girlfriend. In 2010, ICE released a man with a lengthy criminal record in Maine; a few months later he grabbed a man outside a 7-Eleven, held a knife to the man’s throat, and robbed him.
The Globe claims that ICE officials have testified before Congress that the likelihood of these immigrants to re-commit violent crimes is less than 10 percent.