Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith issued the following statement in response to today’s announcement from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) regarding newly-released immigration enforcement statistics. The statistics showed an increase in deportations of criminal aliens, but little else when it comes to immigration enforcement in the American workforce.
Ranking Member Lamar Smith: “The deportation of criminal aliens is only one piece of the immigration enforcement pie. While criminal arrests may be on the rise, worksite enforcement has been all but forgotten by the Obama administration. Millions of Americans are struggling to find work, while an estimated seven million illegal immigrants are working in the U.S. Worksite enforcement could help make those much-needed jobs available for U.S. citizen and legal immigrant workers. But under President Obama, worksite enforcement administrative arrests are down 77%, criminal arrests are down 60%, indictments are down 64% and convictions are down 68%.
“The Obama administration needs to do more than just enforce a few immigration laws. In addition to deporting criminal aliens, they need to secure the border to ensure those deported cannot come right back into the U.S. And they need to conduct worksite enforcement to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants and make millions of jobs available to U.S. citizen and legal immigrant workers.”