Lack of resources curtails ICE tracking of illegals

Washington Times ^ | August 10, 2010 | Jerry Seper

[La Lydia]

New guidance telling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to focus on apprehending terrorists and criminals has many of ICE's rank-and-file agents wondering who then is responsible for tracking down and detaining the millions of other illegal border-crossers and fugitive aliens now in the country. The new guidelines are outlined in a June 29 memo from Assistant Secretary John Morton, who heads the agency, to all ICE employees regarding the apprehension, detention and removal of illegal immigrants, noting that the agency "only has resources to remove approximately 400,000 aliens per year, less than 4 percent of the estimated illegal-alien population in the United States."

Mr. Morton said ICE needed to... "prioritize the apprehension and removal of aliens who only pose a threat to national security and/or public safety, such as criminals and terrorists."...

Described in the memo as lesser priorities are foreign nationals caught crossing the border illegally or using phony immigration documents to gain entry, and those identified as fugitives after failing to show up for immigration or deportation hearings....

More than a dozen veteran ICE agents told The Washington Times that the memo had field agents wondering whether they would be detaining illegal border-crossers in the future and whether those apprehended by other law enforcement agencies would be turned over to ICE for eventual deportation.

One high-ranking ICE official...said agents at a major field office who inquired were told, "Arresting and deporting aliens was administrative work, and that as ICE criminal investigators, they were not going to do administrative duties."

[La Lydia]

How do they know what kind of threat they present if they don't track them down and identify them? This makes no sense. And John Morton thinks we are stupid. The Obama administration has imposed de facto amnesty on our country, no more Rule of Law, just Rule of Holder.

[pnh102]

But there's plenty of resources to get people on the dole to register to vote.

I really hope that fewer and fewer people are believing the idea that the US government, which takes in trillions of dollars a year in taxes, is really bereft of resources.

[rarestia]

The one thing clearly enumerated in the Constitution is the Federal government’s responsibility to protect the States from invasions and general warfare. They are derelict in their duty and I would dare say committing treason by allowing the border States to wither on the vine to illegal immigration and violent drug cartels/trafficking.

[Red in Blue PA]

Lack of resources curtails ICE tracking of illegals....yet they have resources to send an imam to the middle east?

[steelyourfaith]

Too bad ICE doesn’t have any shovel ready jobs to justify receiving stimulus money.

[USNBandit]

This has been going on for a while. Criminal Alien ICE groups would serve warrants looking for gang members and they were only allowed to arrest the subject of the warrant. None of the other illegals encountered were arrested.

If you wanted to make ICE into a force multiplier you would have Detention and Removal agents go on warrant services with local PD and then round up all the illegal aliens encoutered. That would teach that population that if you raise a gangbanger your whole family is going back to Mexico.

[dirtboy]

Lack of resources curtails ICE tracking of illegals

Yet the government is trying to prevent Arizona from doing just that. Quite telling.

[Brett66]

"only has resources to remove approximately 400,000 aliens per year" ??

Who the hell does he think he is asking for more money for his incompetence? I could hire 100,000 illegal aliens to enforce border control working at $2 an hour that would far surpass this slobbering clown's efforts at "enforcement".

[BARLF]

just Rule of Holder.

= Rule of Shariah.

Be not deceived, we have an enemy ENEMY in control of our government, a Muslim.

[kabar]

I really hope that fewer and fewer people are believing the idea that the US government, which takes in trillions of dollars a year in taxes, is really bereft of resources.

If you read the article you will find this:

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the new ICE guidelines demonstrated that despite promises from the Obama administration, it is "simply not serious about enforcing all of our immigration laws."

"The reason the Obama administration doesn't have the resources is because they don't want them," he said. "The Obama administration did not request a single new detention bed in their most recent budget request.

So the limits on detention capacity that they now claim hold them back from further enforcement are of their own making," he said. "What's more, ICE is running under its average daily detention capacity — the Obama administration is not even using all the resources it has."

[kabar]

See my post#10. You have to ask for the money to get it. Obama isn’t interested in requesting the necessary resources to enforce our immigration laws.

[La Lydia]

Truth be told, the government has the “resources” to remove as many illegals as it wants to. What is lacks is the will.

[greatplains]

But they have resources to fund who knows what dollar amount for a trip for Michelle Antoinette and they have resources to send an imam to the middle east - and that’s a drop in the waste bucket. You’re right - Holder thinks everyone is incredibly stupid.