ImmigrationDHS ordered to release names of immigrant criminals allowed to stay in U.S.
A federal judge has ordered DHS to release the names of thousands of criminal immigrants who were allowed to stay in the United States because their home countries refused to take them back. Two years ago, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a list of more than 6,800 criminals, including 201 who were convicted of murder and other serious offenses, but the agency refused to provide names, saying that doing so would be a violation of the immigrants’ privacy. A judge ruled that the public interest in knowing how ICE handles aliens convicted of crimes is more important than the privacy concerns of the immigrants. The list of released criminal aliens now contains more than 8,500 names.
A federal judge has ordered DHS to release the names of thousands of criminal immigrants who were allowed to stay in the United States because their home countries refused to take them back.
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin made the ruling nearlyt two years after the Boston Globe originally requested the names from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The Globe reports that the agency gave the Globe a list of more than 6,800 criminals, including 201 who were convicted of murder and other serious offenses, but the agency refused to provide names.
ICE says the list of criminals allowed to stay in the United States now contains more than 8,500 names.
The Obama administration argued that releasing the criminals’ names would be “an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” In addition, DHS said that the immigrants “have a strong interest in avoiding any embarrassment or retaliation that may be caused by the government’s publicly identifying them both as convicted criminals and illegal aliens.”
Judge Scheindlin ruled, however, that the public interest in the names is more significant than the privacy concerns of the immigrants. DHS will now be forced to reveal the first list of criminal immigrants released in the U.S. since 2001.
“The public has an interest in knowing how [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] handles aliens convicted of crimes who are required to be released,” the judge wrote in her ruling Thursday, noting that some of the released offenders go on to commit new violent crimes.
Judge Scheindlin also referenced “several questionable” decisions in the program uncovered by the Globe in a series of articles called “Justice in the Shadows.”
DHS officials, referring to cases of released criminal immigrants committing crimes again, called these incidents anomalies, but Judge Scheindlin said DHS had no way of proving that.
“There is merit in plaintiffs’ argument that DHS cannot dismiss the value of the Globe’s inquiry by asserting that the troubling cases ‘do not indicate any failing on the part of the agency’ but refuse to provide the data that would refute the Globe’s suspicions,” the judge wrote.
The Globe praised the decision
“The public has a right to know when the government frees criminals who were supposed to be deported,” Globe editor Brian McGrory said in a statement. “For more than a decade, federal immigration officials have kept citizens in the dark about these releases, sometimes with deadly consequences. We’re gratified that Judge Scheindlin has recognized the compelling public interest in knowing which criminal aliens are being released to US streets.”
An ICE spokesman said the agency is reviewing the decision, but has not decided whether to appeal. A 2001 Supreme Court ruling forced federal immigration officials to release immigrants after six months if their deportation is not likely in the near future. According to theGlobe, immigration officials could detain violent criminals longer if they declare them dangerous to the public, but DHS rarely does.
U.S. immigration data shows ICE has released or deported at least 1 million criminals since 2003.
