ICYMI: Sen. Cruz: How Many Criminals Have Been Released Across the Nation?

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing questioned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson regarding the increased security threats due to violent criminals entering the country illegally and, in thousands of cases, being permitted to stay.

"I am very concerned by the lack of enforcement at the border, the lack of enforcement of our immigration laws. I am concerned on multiple levels, number one, from a perspective of national security and dangerous illegal immigrants being allowed to come into this country, and number two, from the perspective of this administration not enforcing the law," Sen. Cruz said.

Sen. Cruz asked, "You stated your interest just a moment ago at getting at the criminals, which is very much the same as the President's purported justification for his illegal amnesty program, that it would allow the focus of prosecutorial resources on violent criminals. It strikes me that there is a fairly serious problem with that argument, which is namely that the Department is not focusing its resources on violent criminals. Indeed, the number of criminal aliens deported from the interior has declined 23 percent since last year, and declined 39 percent since the peak in 2011, so when it comes to violent criminals, the Department is not stepping up its efforts and indeed, if you look to 2013, in 2013, the Department released 36,007 criminal aliens with serious convictions."

Sen. Cruz cited the following numbers of criminals being released into the population, as reported by Washington Times:

· 116 with convictions for homicide;
· 43 for convictions for negligent manslaughter;
· 14 for convictions for voluntary manslaughter;
· 1 with a conviction for something ICE classified as ‘homicide-willful kill-public official-gun';

Additionally, Sen. Cruz noted that among the thousands of criminal aliens who were released, there were:

· 15,635 convictions for drunk driving;
· 2,691 convictions for assault.

"Why is the Department releasing so many criminal aliens, and secondly, can you tell this committee in the six and a half years of the Obama Administration's tenure, just how many criminal aliens have been released, how many murderers, how many rapists, how many who have been convicted of violent assault, have been released into the population," Sen. Cruz asked.

Sec. Johnson admitted the number is too high and could be improved.

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