A record 55 percent of the 396,906 individuals returned to their homelands had been convicted of felonies or misdemeanors, including 1,119 murders and 5,848 convicted of sexual offenses. “It does sound like the administration has implemented de facto amnesty for a large segment of those who are here illegally,” said Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano participates in a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, February 15, 2012 in Washington, DC. The committee is hearing testimony from Secretary Napolitano on President Obama’s FY2013 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security.
Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano’s invitation to tout her $59 billion spending request to Congress Wednesday morphed instead into fodder for the nation’s irascible debate over undocumented immigrants, a snapshot of fevered quarrels to come in this presidential election year.
Led by a group of conservative Texans, House Republicans told Napolitano they viewed President Barack Obama’s policy of selective deportation of illegal immigrants with criminal records as a program effectively granting “amnesty” to millions of other undocumented immigrants allowed to remain in the U.S.
Napolitano, the former governor and attorney general of Arizona, fought back by emphasizing her department is making tough enforcement choices with increasingly scarce resources.
The Obama administration deported more unlawful immigrants last year than anytime in the six-year history of the department, Napolitano declared. A record 55 percent of the 396,906 individuals returned to their homelands had been convicted of felonies or misdemeanors, including 1,119 murderers and 5,848 convicted of sexual offenses.
“It does sound like the administration has implemented de facto amnesty for a large segment of those who are here illegally,” said Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston.
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