According to a new report compiled by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and handed over to Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley, more than 500 illegal alien "Dreamers" who’ve had their DACA benefits repealed due to criminal and/or gang involvement are still at large in the United States.
Ready to hand out those amnesty tickets yet?
Here’s a quick breakdown, in case you need something to be irritated about today: USCIS reports 2,127 former DACA recipients have had their benefits pulled by the feds for criminal and/or gang activity. Of those, 535 were remanded to immigration officials and have since been released back into the U.S.
Another 940 have never been handed over to ICE in the first place. Only 562 (about a third) have been deported, while a mere 90 were in ICE custody as of last November.
The Center for Immigration Studies notes that the 500 or so former DACA “kids” who've been released by ICE and are currently at large in the U.S. represent “25 percent of those who lost DACA status due to criminal and/or gang activity as of November 2017.”
CIS’s Jessica Vaughan explained it this way:
“While it is reassuring that USCIS is revoking DACA benefits for criminal gang members it identifies, it is concerning that almost as many criminal alien DACA beneficiaries have been released as have been removed to their home country.”
Oh, and it gets better. Vaughan notes the former DACA recipients’ collective list of gang affiliations includes “some of the most violent and dangerous gangs in the United States, such as MS-13, 18th Street, the Latin Kings, and the Trinitarios. It includes some lesser-known gangs as well, with names like Last Generation Korean Killers and Maniac Latin Disciples.” Yay!
While the debate rages on Capitol Hill over how to handle illegal aliens who were brought to the United States as children, the question remains to be answered over what to do with those whose criminal records and known gang ties pose a threat not only to American citizens, but to other legal immigrants in U.S. communities, and whose presence doesn't seem to bother many lawmakers.
As for now, the answer seems clear: do very little.
(Cover photo: Pax Ahimsa Gethen)