Immigration bureau to devote more money to catching criminal aliens

Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary Michael Garcia Wednesday announced that the agency would use an additional $10 million in congressional funding to set up eight new teams of agents charged with apprehending and deporting aliens convicted of crimes in the United States.

Garcia also announced a new top 10 list featuring aliens convicted of crimes, who are also facing final deportation orders. The crimes ranged from rape to manslaughter. None is a suspected terrorist.

Garcia said the new teams and top 10 list are "just one part of a comprehensive strategy to apprehend fugitives."

Ironically, some of the aliens on the list completed sentences in U.S. prisons. But local law enforcement agencies either did not inform federal immigration agents of the release of the aliens, or were not aware that the aliens were in the country illegally.

Asa Hutchinson, the undersecretary of Homeland Security for border and transportation security, also spoke at the news conference and said that the lack of communication between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities is "a historical problem." But he said the creation of the Homeland Security Department created both an "opportunity and a challenge" to improve information sharing.

A report issued last month by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that favors stricter immigration enforcement, said many state and local law enforcement agencies have little incentive to assist in the enforcement of immigration law. For example, states have criticized the federally funded State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which assists states with the costs of detaining aliens. They argue that the program does almost nothing to meet the true costs of apprehending and detaining aliens. Arizona, for example, spent $305 million housing illegal aliens in 2002, but received only $24 million in federal reimbursement, according to the report. And Congress recently reduced funding for the criminal alien assistance program from $585 million in 2002 to $250 million in 2003.

In addition, many states and localities have their own laws barring their law enforcement officers from enforcing immigration law. These so-called "sanctuary" laws are in place in such major cities as New York and Seattle.

Still, Hutchinson said that the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is making strides in establishing partnerships with local agencies. Part of the $10 million in funding will go to boost the capabilities of the bureau's Law Enforcement Support Center in Williston, Vt., which provides state and local agencies with immigration status information on aliens suspected of, arrested for, or convicted of a crime.

In addition, the bureau is working to boost information sharing with the U.S. Marshals Service, the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration.

The bureau suspects that there are 300,000 aliens facing deportation orders currently in the United States, and 80,000 of those have been convicted of a crime. Many served prison time and were released. In the first six months of this fiscal year, the bureau has deported 36,000 criminal aliens.

The new fugitive operations teams will be based in Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia and Washington, and bring to 16 the total number of such teams operated by the bureau.