Obama administration’s release of illegal immigrants unlawful, audit finds

The Obama administration violated the law when it released thousands of illegal immigrants last February, more than 600 of whom had criminal records, according to an internal audit released Tuesday that blamed the problem on poor planning and bad leadership from Washington.

Compounding matters, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gave bad information to Congress about the releases, initially blaming the looming budget sequester rather than the agency’s own budget pressures, the Homeland Security inspector general concluded ...

“In this single action, ICE undermined its own credibility, the rule of law and the safety of Americans and local law enforcement,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican who requested the report along with Sen. John McCain.

“This report provides more evidence that our nation’s immigration laws are being flagrantly disregarded. Americans need to be assured the problems within ICE that led to the dangerous release of illegal aliens will be fixed and DHS and ICE will never again violate the law by releasing known criminals into our streets,” Mr. Coburn said ...

Between Feb. 9 and March 1, ICE released 2,226 immigrants, and 622 of those had criminal records, including 34 “Level 1” offenders, which includes all aggravated felony convictions. San Francisco’s ICE office alone released 11 of those Level 1 offenders.

When the releases became public, ICE agents tried to re-arrest many of the immigrants, picking up 24 of the Level 1 offenders, 30 Level 2 offenders who had lesser felonies or multiple misdemeanors and four Level 3 offenders who had a misdemeanor conviction ...