When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton announced this week that his agency had “removed” the largest number of illegal immigrants in agency history, he implied that the 396,906 foreign nationals in custody had all been deported. But Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart warned that Morton’s boast was “just more smoke and mirrors from ICE. In our experience, the word ‘remove’ does not mean physically deported.” Considering the fact that ICE still refuses to tell Prince William the final disposition of more than 4,000 criminals this one county handed over for deportation during the past four years, Stewart told The Washington Examiner that there’s no telling how many other convicts who are in the country illegally — including more than a thousand murderers — still remain in the United States.
Since August, when Prince William officials filed a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against ICE, Morton’s agency has only produced a pared-down list that contains no identifiable information regarding specific offenders. Stewart says hundreds of convicted criminals re-arrested in Prince William told police that they had been released by ICE and merely told to attend a scheduled deportation hearing. One of those was Carlos Martinelly Montano, a 23-year-old illegal immigrant with two prior convictions for DUI and one for reckless driving. In August 2010 a drunken Montano — who Stewart noted “was at one point listed by ICE as ‘removed’ even though he clearly was not” — ran into a car, killing a Catholic nun and critically injured two others.
Recommended Stories
Despite this record, the Department of Homeland Security still refuses to comply with Prince William’s FOIA request for the disposition of all cases the county handed over to ICE. However, language in the Privacy Act of 1974 — the same statute DHS cites as its legal authority for conferring a right of “privacy” on foreigners convicted of crimes in the United States — specifically states that it only applies to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
With no legal leg to stand on, DHS now reportedly wants to “discuss” releasing the requested information — but only with the police department. Stewart says the county will not budge on its demand for a public accounting, which is encouraging. Prince William County residents have a right to know if foreign predators who have already been arrested, tried and convicted of crimes are still lurking around somewhere in their communities.
