Feds Free More Illegal Aliens, States Pass Laws to Help Them

While the latest Homeland Security figures reveal a sharp decline in immigration enforcement—more illegal aliens are being released in the U.S. than arrested—states across the nation are passing laws to accommodate those who should be deported.

It’s a combined state-federal movement aimed at helping illegal immigrants assimilate in this country. The feds do their part by failing miserably to remove the undocumented and, rather than crack down on the offenders, states reward them with rights that should be reserved for legal residents and citizens. It’s a lawlessness that’s striking every corner of the country.

Let’s start with the feds. Though the Obama administration claims it’s enforcing immigration laws, that’s hardly the case. The Homeland Security agency responsible for doing this, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), now releases more illegal aliens than it arrests and removals have declined more than 35% since 2009. The alarming information was published this week in a conservative political news magazine that obtained “leaked internal statistics” that also show arrests declined in every part of the country, including up to 62% in one region.

In 2013 ICE encountered more than 700,000 illegal immigrants who should have been deported, the story says, yet fewer than 200,000 got removed. It gets better; most of the candidates were found in jails across the country, which indicates a criminal history or at the very least a brush with local law enforcement. Incredibly, ICE released way more illegal immigrants—including established criminals—into communities throughout the nation than it arrested.

That makes the second part of this team effort all the more enraging. A growing number of states are accommodating illegal aliens by passing measures to grant privileges such as driver’s licenses and discounted tuition at public colleges and universities. In 2013 an astounding 437 laws and resolutions related to immigration were enacted by local governments, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a bipartisan group that aims to preserve state power in the federal system.

This marked a 64% increase in immigration-related laws enacted in 2012, the NCSL reveals in a special report issued this week. In all, legislators in 45 states and the District of Columbia passed 184 laws and 253 resolutions involving immigration, the report says. Four states—Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey and Oregon—passed measures to give illegal immigrants discounted in-state tuition at public colleges, the report says, bringing to 15 the number of states that offer illegal aliens the taxpayer-funded perk.

Eight states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon and Vermont—joined New Mexico, Utah and Washington to offer illegal aliens driver’s licenses. This is a highly controversial issue that’s ignited outrage and has left some holdout states with hefty legal bills. Just last summer an illegal immigrant sued Nebraska for “unconstitutionally” denying her a driver’s license. Arizona has also spent money defending its order banning illegal immigrants from obtaining licenses. In its legal complaint the open-borders group that sued Arizona claims the stat violates the Supremacy Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Unites States Constitution.