Immigration Enforcement: The Rhetoric, The Reality

Immigration Enforcement: The Rhetoric, The Reality

Wow, where do you start? What is the charter for DHS (Department of Homeland Security)? My assumption was to protect the United States from Terrorism. The White House has stated repeatedly that "...fighting terrorism is the central mission of the Department of Homeland Security...".

This is what we have been told every time George W. Bush speaks. In fact, his most recent rhetoric is "They are a threat to your children, David," he said to NBC's David Gregory.

However, the facts appear to show that the impact of DHS is something altogether different. The link above is to a summary report from TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse) at Syracuse University. They analyzed data acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Summary from the source is below:

• Despite repeated claims by high officials of the Bush Administration that fighting terrorism has been the central mission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since it began operating, the data show that in the last three years a claim of terrorism was made against only 12 (0.0015%) out of 814,073 individuals against whom the DHS has filed charges in the immigration courts.


• A separate, but somewhat broader, grouping of immigration court cases concern what are called "national security" charges. Here, an examination of the data in the FY 2004 to 2006 period revealed that such charges were made against only 114, or 0.014% of the 800,000-plus individuals. When it comes to actual removals, the record is even smaller, with DHS being credited for only 37 such cases in the three year period.
• Similarly, while combating human traffickers, drug dealers, and other kinds of traditional criminals has also been repeatedly proclaimed as a central mission of the immigration enforcement agencies within the DHS, the records show that these kinds of allegations were made against only 13 out of 100 of all individuals charged in the courts since FY 2004.
• In fact, according to the detailed case-by-case information obtained from the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), practically all the charges — 86.5% of them — involved a variety of immigration violations such as entering the U.S. without an inspection, not having a valid immigrant visa, or overstaying a student visa.