New government figures are shedding light on the problem of illegal alien crime in America. The report from the Department of Homeland Security shows that nearly one-quarter of all federal inmates are illegal immigrants. Of the 187,855 inmates in federal prisons, 42,034 are foreign born. That amounts to 23 percent. The report also shows how the Trump Administration is handling those illegals. Only seven of them (.0002 percent) have been granted deportation relief. The rest are all either under deportation orders or in deportation proceedings.
The DHS report comes as the result of an executive order requiring transparency on prisoner immigration status, and the numbers are eye-opening to many advocates. "It really shows that when we don't enforce our immigration laws, there are definitely consequences for crime problems in the U.S.," says Jessica Vaughan with the Center for Immigration Studies. "We really must do a better job of securing the border to prevent criminals from entering in the first place, and we also need to crack down on sanctuary jurisdictions."
As surprising as the high number of illegal aliens in federal prisons is, Vaughan says the fact that nearly all are being deported is an encouraging sign of the change in immigration policy under the Trump Administration. "They're not going to be looking the other way at illegal immigration, and particularly at those who come illegally and are involved in crime," she tells KTRH. Indeed, overall illegal immigration has fallen noticeably since President Trump took office in January.
Vaughan believes that just like the overall illegal immigration numbers dropping, so too will the prison numbers due to the current policies. "The end result of this is going to be after some sustained immigration enforcement, we should see this percentage of criminal aliens in the federal system go down," she says.