DHS Scraps Perfectly Good Program that Protected Americans



Seal_of_the_United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security.svgA top House official believes the Obama administration blatantly disregarded the safety of Americans when it did away with an effective immigration enforcement program late last year to implement a new one that allows more criminal illegal aliens to remain in the U.S. instead of being removed from the country.

“By scrapping a law enforcement tool that keeps our communities safe and replacing it with a new program that permits the release of criminal aliens, President Obama is needlessly endangering our communities,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) stated in a committee press release Tuesday.

As part of the 10-point immigration plan the Department of Homeland Security rolled out last November, the former program, Secure Communities, a congressionally mandated tool, was executively dismantled for the sole purpose of being replaced by a far more lenient one, ironically named the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP).

Secure Communities had been responsible for identifying which criminal illegal aliens in custody should be flagged to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as candidates for removal proceedings. On all accounts, it was hugely successful at enforcing our immigration laws and kept American communities safe, unlike its successor.

Goodlatte laid out the shortcomings in the latter method in the same press statement:

“These ‘priorities’ ignore entire categories of removable criminal aliens defined by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act. After the implementation of PEP, DHS will not pursue the vast majority of criminal aliens who commit the following offenses: fraud or material misrepresentation in the immigration process; drug possession offenses; most theft offenses, including identity theft; nearly all crimes involving moral turpitude; and, aliens who have misdemeanors that the Administration does not deem to be ‘significant.’”

The chairman wrote that the federal government has no interest in protecting people’s safety or even enforcing our most basic immigration policies.

“It’s past time for the Obama Administration to get its priorities straight and protect the American people instead of their political interests,” Goodlatte concluded.

About Author

avatar

The latest guest opinion pieces from FAIR.

10 Comments

  1. avatar

    obama has never wanted to protect America or its citizens. He has proved that time and time again by his actions. He is not fighting ISIS (because he is backing them) even though they are a threat to our country. He has gutted our military, leaving us very vulnerable. It is his plan to destroy America any way he can and by not protecting our country he is making it extremely easy for us to be attacked. If that happens, it will be because of obama’s hatred of America and he will declare martial law, cancel 2016 elections and declare a dictatorship.

  2. avatar

    One should not expect any sane reasoning from this utterly inept degenerate that’s sullying the highest office of this nation, or his totally incompetent puppets (administration) for that matter, to actually enforce our laws and protect U.S. citizens from the decades of criminality these illegal aliens have perpetually committed. How disheartening this must be for other legal U.S. citizens like myself, to be so abused, by a corrupt and mentally challenged government that’s supposed to ACTUALLY SERVE US!

  3. avatar

    I wish organizations like FAIR would remind Americans over and over again what a country is and why we have borders and ports of entry. Also, how about reminding Americans that our president’s job is to protect U.S. territory and American citizens against the invasion of criminal foreign nationals.

    Forget the language about political interests as shown in this statement by Goodlatte.

    “It’s past time for the Obama Administration to get its priorities straight and protect the American people instead of their political interests,” Goodlatte concluded.

    Get back to the very basics of what this president’s job is and that of our elected representatives. They do not work for foreign workers or illegal aliens. They were elected by our fellow American citizens to look out for our best interests and that of our country.

    • avatar

      FAIR already does that. What we need is to get NBC, ABC, CBS, and CNN to do that.

      • avatar

        No, FAIR does not do that. Remind Americans what this country stands for and how our system is designed to work.

        • avatar

          What are you reading on this site? FAIR does remind everyone daily that we have borders and immigration laws should be enforced.

        • avatar

          Your point was “very clear” and also very wrong. FAIR does the very thing you say they don’t do. Since two people have pointed this out to you, maybe it’s you who needs to “read”.

          • avatar

            Freedom1958 and Leland, I mean literally! Has anyone ever challenged Obama regarding what his job is? Has he ever been asked directly why he panders to illegal aliens to the detriment of American citizens? How about members of Congress? Has anyone asked them why they work on behalf of illegal aliens and foreign workers instead of American citizens? Has Obama been asked why he approves of criminal foreign nationals crossing our borders and trespassing on U.S. soil?

            When Dan Stein or any of the other FAIR officials debate the issues they could certainly be more bold and confrontational with their opponents and press them for answers to questions like the above.

    • avatar

      Actually, FAIRUS.ORG Needs Monetary Power

      It needs Billionaires that agree with FAIR to start funding our crusade. I hope not all Billionaires are greedy short-term thinkers.

      Let’s put it this way, we go to complete globalism and guess what, we make world level wages….$2K/yr. How will the Billionaires sell us anything if that happened?