Dakota Beacon

A number of myths permeate the illegal alien conversation.

            1. Illegal aliens from Central America are fleeing repressive regimes and seeking asylum in the United States. The truth is that most illegal aliens with children do not seek asylum but remain in the United States illegally. (Source: Fox News)

            2. Illegal aliens are more law-abiding than United States citizens. The truth is that illegal aliens commit crimes at a far higher rate than United States citizens. (Source: Breitbart)

            3. President Obama is “prioritizing” deportation of criminal aliens. The truth is that all deportations of every category have dropped significantly. The deportation of criminal illegal aliens has dropped almost 50% in two years. (Source: Gateway Pundit)

How much of an unchecked flow of illegal aliens produce crime in the United States? The Center for Immigration Study cites Department of Homeland Security records showing that in an eight-month period in 2014, more than 8,100 deportable aliens were released by sanctuary jurisdictions. Over 3,000 were felons. Sixty-two percent had prior criminal records. Nineteen hundred were later re-arrested a combined total of 4,300 times on 7,500 offenses.

There is more definitive information. Much of the following was drawn from The Daily Signal a subsidiary of The Heritage Foundation. The Daily Signal cited two Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports on the subject. The first, GAO-05-337R (April 7, 2005), looked at criminal aliens who had entered the United States legally. The Second, GAO-05-646R (May 9, 2005), looked at criminal aliens who entered the United States illegally and were still in the country illegally.

Of the legal aliens (the April 7 report), the data is as follows:

 -- The percentage of federal prisoners that are legal criminal aliens is about 27 percent;

  -- In 2004 there were 49,000 such prisoners in federal jails;

  -- These legal criminal aliens came from Mexico (63%), Colombia (7%), Dominican Republic (7%), Jamaica (4%), Cuba (3%), El Salvador (2%). The remaining 14% came from 167 other countries.

Of the illegal aliens (the May 9 report), the GAO looked at the crimes committed by 55,322 aliens who had entered the country illegally and were still in the United States illegally at the time of their imprisonment during fiscal year 2003. The destruction caused by these illegal aliens is astounding.

-- This group had been arrested collectively 459,614 times averaging eight arrests per illegal alien;

  -- 97 percent had more than one arrest and 26 percent had over 11 arrests;

  -- The 55,322 illegal aliens had committed almost 700,000 criminal offences averaging 13 offenses per illegal alien;

 -- 10 percent of the illegal aliens were arrested for committing 26 or more offenses;

 -- Of all the arrests, 12 percent were for violent crimes including murder, assault and sex-related crimes; 15 percent were for burglary, larceny and property damage; 24 percent were for drug offenses; the rest were for DUI, fraud, weapons violations and obstruction of justice;

  -- 80 percent of the arrests occurred in California, Texas and Arizona.

There is more shocking information from the US House Judiciary Committee. In fiscal year 2013, the Obama administration released over 36,000 convicted criminal aliens awaiting the results of deportation hearings. In fiscal year 2014, Obama released 30,558 illegal alien criminals. These criminals had been convicted of assault, robbery, sexual assault, sexual offenses, kidnapping, voluntary manslaughter and homicide. In 2013 the Obama administration did not bring removal proceedings against over 68,000 convicted criminal aliens.

Since the 2005 GAO reports, the illegal alien situation has not improved. If anything, control of the illegal alien flow into the United States has deteriorated.

If the aliens released by the administration in the past two years follow the same pattern of the aliens covered in these two studies, they will commit hundreds of thousands of more crimes that could be avoided.

In October 2015 Senate Democrats blocked a bill called Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act. It would have withheld federal funds from states or cities that refused to comply with requests from federal immigration officials to turn over immigrants who are in the country illegally. The legislation was defeated by Senate Democrats with the help of Heidi Heitkamp in a 54-45 vote. Senator John Hoeven voted for the measure.

In spite of his bluster and gusto, Donald Trump is not incorrect when he cites the criminal activity of illegal alienS.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).