WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to deport undocumented immigrants posing threats to national security, US advocacy group Judicial Watch asserted.
“The monstrous agency created after September 11, 2001 to protect the United States from more terrorist attacks instead compromises national security by failing to track how many unauthorized foreigners — some felons in their native countries — [that] it refuses to prosecute under President Obama’s broad amnesty initiative,” Judicial Watch said on Tuesday.
In November 2014, the White House announced an initiative to shield parents of US citizens and permanent residents who illegally entered the United States from deportation, and grant them the right to get work permits.
“For years, the system has spared a myriad of illegal aliens from removal by authorizing — and encouraging — low-level field officers to block deportations,” Judicial Watch said.
The advocacy group pointed out that under prosecutorial discretion guidelines issued in 2011, many undocumented immigrants have been allowed to stay in the United States, but no one knows the exact number.
Judicial Watch also stated the DHS does not currently have a data-gathering system to judge which agents use prosecutorial discretion, which could create a national security risk.
“The OIG [Office of Inspector General] reveals that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents admit that their agency regularly grants illegal immigrants prosecutorial discretion without bothering to access criminal records in the country of origin,” Judicial Watch concluded.
Since September 2014, US Citizenship and Immigration Services said they have approved 632,855 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), while the US Border Patrol said it had released 650 individuals eligible for DACA.
Judicial Watch is a conservative educational foundation that advocates for transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law, according to the organization’s website.
