Posted on 04/14/2005 6:49:45 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has freed numerous illegal aliens into the community who are dangerous murderers, rapists and child molesters under a legal loophole created by Supreme Court decisions, the Bush administration said on Thursday.
In testimony to a Senate subcommittee, a senior Justice Department official said Congress should urgently pass legislation to close the loopholes, which have already resulted in the release of several extremely violent offenders, with others scheduled for release soon.
"Among them are vicious criminals who have murdered their wives, molested young children and brutally attacked their enemies," Jonathan Cohn, a deputy assistant attorney general, told a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The loophole arose after the Supreme Court ruled in two cases, one in 2001 and the other this year, that criminal aliens could only be held in prison for six months pending deportation after completing their criminal sentences.
If the individual's home country refused to accept him within that time, the criminal alien must be released. The administration wants Congress to pass a law allowing such people to be held indefinitely.
Among those being freed are over 700 people who came to the United States from Cuba in 1980 as part of the so-called Mariel boatlift. By mid-February, 150 have already been released because Cuba will not accept them back.
Cohn said they include Antonio Valenti-Cordova, a convicted murderer with a history of mental illness who has the delusional belief that the FBI instructed him to strangle his wife. Also, Elio Riveron-Aguilera who has committed aggravated criminal sexual assault, rape, robbery and kidnapping.
400,000 AT LARGE
Victor Cerda of the Department of Homeland Security testified that in fiscal year 2004, his division removed 84,000 criminal aliens from the United States. However, an estimated 400,000 were still at large.
"Under Operation Predator, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has arrested more than 5,1000 sexual predators since the program was launched in 2003. ICE has already removed over 2,100 of these predators from the United States," Cerda told the subcommittee.
There are an estimated 10-12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Their presence, and the potential security threat they represent, is fueling increasing political anger, especially among Republicans.
Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn said there was no political will in the administration to control the U.S. border with Mexico, adding that President Bush "just doesn't get it."
In a hearing Wednesday before a House of Representatives subcommittee, ICE assistant secretary Michael Garcia said that since late February, his agency had arrested more than 150 members of the Central American MS-13 gang for immigration violations.
Over half had previous arrest and conviction records for crimes such as robbery, assault, rape and murder. One, Lester Rivera-Paz, was wanted in Honduras for involvement in a massacre of 28 bus passengers last December. He had already been deported once from the United States but had illegally reentered the country.
Holy crap. Thanks to Supreme Court rulings, protecting the rights of illegal aliens, the government can't do the one legitimate purpose for which it exists - protecting us.
ping
"President Bush "just doesn't get it."
No, no he doesn't. If there is one issue on which I'd agree with the leftists' assessement of Bush as the Ur Dolt, this is it.
Happily, he won't be running again. Hopefully immigration will be the coming issue for '08. Mercifully that lets JEB off the hook. Giuliani is not better than any of the rest of them on this.
Who will lead the way?
bttt
"...Judicial loophole..."
Is that anything like the gun show loophole?
Is it better or worse?
400,000 ?????????? This sucks big time ..
The Senate doesn't have time to be bothered with this, they're too busy working on massive amnesty bills.
"The administration wants Congress to pass a law allowing such people to be held indefinitely."
Since some countries are refusing to accept these criminal aliens, how about we make any treaties, trade agreements and foreign aid contingent upon them taking them back. Refusing to do so would make any other agreements null and void. Or we could just execute them and be done with it.
"Or we could just execute them and be done with it."
Well, I might no go that far for all of them. But we should certainly increase substantially all penalties for people who commit crime while here illegally.
Or we could hold them indefinitely. Anything would work and anything would be better than releasing them because that just encourages others who know that they will rewarded for their efforts.
Now that I've read your pings to me, my blood pressure is way up.
I'm just surprised the founding fathers of our great country haven't risen from the dead and given a good talking to to a lot of the people who are running this country into the ground.
And when I say that they would give a good talking to, I mean...
I can only hope they are in heaven praying for America.
Stop all foreign invaders ~ NOW!
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