Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed today they have released 30,558 immigrant with criminal records in fiscal year 2014.
That’s down from 2013’s record of 36,007.
ICE said it had little discretion over most of the criminals it released. The agency said under a previous court decision, immigrants whose home countries won’t take them back cannot be held indefinitely, so they have to be released after a period of time.
Republicans in Congress have proposed rewriting the law to allow for longer detention of serious criminals, and have called on the Obama administration to use existing powers to deny visas to leaders of countries that refuse to take their citizens back.
