ICE: Open Border Groups Dictate U.S. Immigration Enforcement

Special interest groups that advocate on behalf of illegal aliens are dictating immigration enforcement in the U.S. and prohibiting federal agents from implementing many of the laws enacted by Congress.

The shocking revelation came this week during congressional testimony from a veteran Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who serves as president of the union that represents ICE officers, the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council. Speaking before the House Judiciary Committee, Chris Crane told lawmakers that morale is an all-time low in the agency of about 20,000.

“ICE is now guided in large part by the influences of powerful special interest groups that advocate on behalf of illegal aliens,” Crane said. “These influences have in large part eroded the order, stability and effectiveness of the agency, creating confusion among all ICE employees. For the last four years it has been a roller coaster for ICE officers with regard to who they can or cannot arrest and which federal laws they will be permitted to enforce.”

He offered a number of examples from field offices throughout the nation in which agents were ordered not to arrest illegal immigrants, including those with multiple convictions for traffic related offenses. In fact, the agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has directed agents not to apprehend illegal aliens with “insignificant” criminal records. “Important to note, no training or list of insignificant misdemeanor offenses was ever provided to ICE employees,” Crane said.

Agents who fail to comply with the new mandate—issued verbally so that there is no written record—face disciplinary action, Crane told lawmakers. This essentially prohibits ICE officers from making street arrests, restricting them to targets that have been preapproved in writing through a lengthy authorization process.

The new Obama administration policies conflict with the way the government trains ICE officers, Crane points out. “As a result, officers are confused and unsure about the new policies and often find themselves facing disciplinary action for following the law and their academy training instead of the confusing and highly misunderstood and ever changing new policies.”

He also told the congressional panel that open borders groups and the media unfairly demonize the agency simply for doing its job. “ICE employees represent the full spectrum of races and religions that make up our great country,” Crane said, stressing that many at the agency are “themselves the sons and daughters of immigrants or grandsons and granddaughters of immigrants.” However, they believe in law enforcement and the rule of law, he added.

Over the summer Crane and a Border Patrol official participated in a U.S. Senate press conference to reveal that the Obama administration has ordered federal immigration officers to release illegal aliens arrested for violent crimes as long as they claim to be “dreamers” who came to the U.S. as children. Under a controversial plan enacted by the president over the summer, nearly 1 million illegal immigrants under the age of 30 will be spared deportation and have a chance at U.S. citizenship.