November 19, 2008

ICE Statement from Press Secretary Kelly A. Nantel regarding The Houston Chronicle series: "A System’s Fatal Flaws"

There are several hundred men and women working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, who live in the greater Houston area. They are as frustrated as anyone by the suggestion that even one dangerous alien could have been released back on to their community’s streets. ICE is working with Harris County to review their records and to determine the veracity of the allegations raised in the Houston Chronicle’s three-part series. As frustrating as it is however, we have in place now a pioneering program to prevent this type of thing from happening in the future.

As of this month, all new admissions to the Harris County jail have both their criminal and immigration histories checked against federal government databases through a new ICE program called Secure Communities. That information enables ICE to determine the alienage and removability of foreign nationals identified in the jail.

While this process was not in place when the individuals who were highlighted in the series were booked into the Harris County Jail, ICE has implemented a comprehensive approach to enforcing our nation’s immigration laws and we are seeing record results.

In fiscal year 2008, ICE removed 356,000 illegal aliens from the United States, including more than 110,000 individuals with criminal backgrounds. Even with this record number of removals, ICE continues to aggressively pursue its goal of apprehending and removing every criminal alien detained in the thousands of local jails around the country. Last year, the number of criminal aliens in our nation’s prisons and jails identified by ICE for removal rose to more than 221,000. This figure represents a three-fold increase from just two years ago. The results were equally impressive on the local level in Houston. In 2008, the ICE office in Houston issued more than 13,300 charging documents against incarcerated criminal aliens; an increase of 31 percent from the previous year. Perhaps even more telling is the fact that almost half of the 15,700 illegal aliens removed from the Houston area had prior criminal convictions.

It’s unfortunate that the Houston Chronicle chose to base its series on outdated and limited information which does not accurately depict the partnership between ICE and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. While we welcome constructive discussion designed to heighten interest in this important topic, reporting on individual cases without placing those cases in much needed context serves to misinform rather than educate the public.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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