WASHINGTON— Targeted deportation doesn’t mean amnesty for those who stay out of trouble.
Left to right, Chief Michael Fisher, Deputy Directory Kumar Kibble, and Dr. Ruth Ellen Wasem testify on border security (Chelsea Wallis / MNS)
It’s an efficient use of funds, said Kumar Kibble, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s deputy director, at a hearing this week questioning Homeland Security’s increased focus on processing and deporting criminal aliens.
The hearing follows ICE’s arrest of 2,900 illegal aliens in a seven-day, national operation.
The hearing, “Does administrative amnesty harm our efforts to gain and maintain operation control of the border?” drew firm party lines.
Everyone who crosses the border illegally has committed a crime and amnesty would is not tolerated said Chairwoman Candice Miller, R-Mich., in her opening statement.
However, the title of the hearing itself caused several Democrats to formally object to the claim that the U.S. grants amnesty to any lawbreaker, since residents without documentation are also breaking the law.
“This approach has yielded results,” Kibble said. “Of those we removed in 2010 who lacked criminal convictions, more than two thirds were either recent border entrants or repeat immigration law violators.”
“The calculated number of unauthorized alien residents peaked in 2007, when there were estimated 12.4 million unauthorized alien residents in the United States,” said immigration policy specialist Ruth Ellen Wasem. The number dropped over the next two years before leveling off in 2010, possibly in reaction to the recession that began in December 2007, she said.
Congress made deporting certain criminal aliens a priority in 1986, but removals are now happening at unprecedented levels. “Since 2001, formal removals have increased by over 100 percent,” Wasem said.
Even if unlimited budgets were possible, removing all undocumented residents is a herculean task.
Homeland Security removes about 400,000 of the approximately 11.2 million illegal residents per year with current funding. They estimate it takes $23,000 to identify, arrest, detain and remove one unauthorized alien. By the calculations of Rep. Henry Cuellar D- Calif., it would cost $257.6 billion to extricate all illegal residents from the country.
Kibble also defended the Secure Communities program, which has come under fire from communities who fear police will attempt to deport unregistered aliens who report crimes. ICE remains fully committed to the program, Kibble said.
“At no point will any individuals be granted any form of ‘amnesty,’” Kibble said.