ICE Union President Tells Sen. Rubio his Bill is 'De Facto Amnesty'
On Wednesday, the president of the union that represents 7,000 immigration and customs enforcement officers, Chris Crane, sent a letter to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) telling him his blill was "De Facto Amnesty." Sen. Rubio has said that the current situation is "De Facto Amnesty" for the 11 million illegal aliens living in the United States, but Crane writes that since the bill contains almost no interior enforcement provisions, it won't change the current situation.
The Schumer-Rubio-Amnesty bill contains no provisions that require the Department of Homeland Security or ICE to remove future illegal aliens.
Here's the text of Crane's letter:
One of the main points made by you publicly is that Gang of Eight legislation will stop what you refer to as "de facto amnesty." Millions of dollars have been spent on television advertisements which feature you and call on Americans to support your bill to end the nation's practice of de facto amnesty. Yet your bill does nothing to end de facto amnesty, and only guarantees that it will continue.
De facto amnesty is a failure to enforce the nation's immigration laws on the interior of the United States. It is not a border issue. It cannot and will not end as a result of increased border security. It must be resolved through increased interior enforcement.
40% of all illegal immigrants currently in the United States did not illegally cross the border, but instead entered legally with a visa and didn't leave when it expired. 40,000 border patrol agents provided in your legislation will never come in contact with these individuals as they never attempted illegal entry into the United States. While visa overstays represent nearly half of the overall immigration problem facing our broken immigration system, your legislation does nothing to increase enforcement of these violations. Due to these failures in your legislation, de facto amnesty will continue for millions of future visa overstays illegally residing in the United States.
ICE agents are tasked with the interior enforcement of our nation's immigration laws — not the U.S. Border Patrol. It is the responsibility of ICE officers to locate and apprehend millions of visa overstays in the United States. We don't perform that mission now because we don't have the officers to do it.
5,000 ICE immigration officers spread across 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, currently attempt to enforce U.S. immigration laws on the interior of the United States. That's a force half the size of some police departments covering an area larger than the continental United States. The number of additional ICE immigration officers provided by your legislation to perform interior enforcement and stop de facto amnesty — zero.
Every foreign national in the United States, either legally or illegally present, not just visa overstays, is the responsibility of ICE to police. That number currently stands at 40 million. Family reunification provisions in your legislation are estimated to increase that number to 70 million. 5,000 ICE officers will attempt to police 70 million foreign nationals spread across the entire nation. The task you ask of us is impossible. Enforcement will not happen in the future as it doesn't now, ensuring the United States maintains the status quo of de facto amnesty.
Systems like E-Verify and Entry/Exit may identify millions of illegal immigrants and status violators, but ICE officers will not exist to locate and apprehend them rendering the systems useless. The majority of foreign nationals identified by these systems will remain in the United States under the de facto amnesty provided by your legislation.
500,000 ICE fugitives are currently at large in the United States. ICE estimates 2 million criminal aliens at large in the United States; 900,000 criminal aliens are arrested by local police each year. The majority of fugitives and criminal aliens now remain in the U.S. under de facto amnesty; your legislation will do nothing to assist ICE officers in stopping it.
Like the IRS, U.S. State Department, and Department of Justice, political appointees at INS, ICE and DHS have carried out their own political agendas by abusing their discretionary authorities. This has led to our nation's immigration laws not being enforced for the last two decades, which has resulted in 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. Instead of reducing the discretionary authority of political appointees at ICE and DHS to end these abuses and stop de facto amnesty, your legislation increases their discretion thereby guaranteeing it will continue. I have met with you on two occasions, and had additional meetings with your staff. You know about all of these problems and so much more. During every meeting you voiced frustration and concern with the issues presented by law enforcement and committed to make changes to the legislation. But no changes were ever made.
This bill will not end de facto amnesty. In fact, it will not address the majority of problems facing our broken immigration system. It will tie the hands of officers even more and will prevent the effective enforcement of our nation's laws - ensuring future illegal immigration and de facto amnesty. America's only hope for effective immigration legislation now lies with the House of Representatives; unfortunately the Gang of Eight efforts in the Senate have greatly complicated their task.