Illegal immigrants (AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) – Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Sarah Saldana provided written testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday that showed over 86,000 criminal aliens had been released back into the United States from fiscal year 2013 to 2015.



According to Saldana’s written testimony, there were a total of 86,288 criminal aliens released from 2013 to 2015 when you add up the number of criminal releases in the past three years – 36,007 in FY 2013, 30,558 in FY 2014, and 19,723 in FY 2015.

“As you are aware, in fiscal year (FY) 2013, ICE had 36,007 criminal releases, while in FY 2014, that number had fallen to 30,558 criminal releases—that is, a 15 percent reduction from the previous year in the number of criminal aliens released from custody pending removal proceedings. In FY 2015, the number of criminal releases fell even further to 19,723, a 30 percent decrease from FY 2014,” Saldana wrote.



“What’s going on at Homeland Security? What’s going on with Immigration [and] Customs Enforcement is one of the most infuriating things I think I’ve seen in this government yet. In a three-year period, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released more than 86,000 criminal aliens into the American public,” Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said in his opening statement during Thursday’s hearing on illegal immigration crime.



“These are people that were here illegally, got caught committing a crime, were convicted of that crime and instead of deporting them, they were just released back out in the United States of America,” he said, noting that these 86,000 criminal aliens were convicted of more than 231,000 crimes.



“All told, they had more than 231,000 crimes that they were convicted of – 86,000 of these people. In 2015, 196 of these people were convicted of homicide, and ICE released them back into the public rather than deporting them,” he said.



Furthermore, “124 of those that were released between fiscal year 2010 and 2015 went on to commit homicide,” Chaffetz said.



“Let me give you some other stats. In 2013, ICE released 36,007 criminal aliens, criminal aliens who are here unlawfully and present in the United States. As of September 2014, 5,700 of those individuals went on to commit additional crimes,” he said.



Chaffetz said Saldana testified before the committee in March 2015 “that ICE released another 30,000 individuals with criminal convictions.”



“In fact, ICE released 30,558 criminal aliens in 2014 who had a combined 79,059 convictions instead of deporting them. Of those 30,558 criminal aliens, 1,895 were charged with another crime following their release. Their convictions included sex offenses, assault, burglary, robbery, driving under the influence,” Chaffetz said.



He said ICE told the committee “that in 2015, the agency released 19,723 criminal aliens with a combined 64,197 convictions, including 934 sex offenses, 804 robberies, 216 kidnappings, and 196 homicide-related convictions” on Saldana’s watch.



“They were here illegally. They got caught committing a crime. They were convicted of a crime, and instead of following the law and deporting them, you released them back into the public, and they commit more crimes. How do you look those people in the eye?” Chaffetz asked Saldana.



Chaffetz showed a picture of the University of Notre Dame football stadium and said Saldanaa released more criminal illegal aliens than can fit in the stadium.



“Let me show this football stadium. This is Notre Dame football stadium. You released more people that were convicted of crimes that should have been deported than you can fit into that stadium. You’d still have people waiting outside the line. Those are the criminals that you released instead of deporting,” he said.

According to ICE statistics, in 2015 ICE released “19,723 criminal aliens, who had a total of 64,197 convictions among them,” including 8,234 violent convictions and 208 homicide convictions.



The report classified the 208 homicide convictions as follows: 101 homicide, 19 homicide (negligent manslaughter – weapon), 19 homicide (negligent manslaughter – vehicle), 19 homicide (willful kill – weapon), 18 homicide (willful kill – gun), 12 voluntary manslaughter, 9 homicide (willful kill – non-family gun), 4 homicide (willful kill – non-family – weapon), 3 homicide (willful kill – family weapon), 2 attempt to commit homicide, 1 homicide (John/Jane Doe – no warrant), and 1 homicide – negligent manslaughter (weapon – attempt to commit).



According to the report, the largest number of convictions was for DUI – 12,307 alcohol DUI convictions and 354 drug DUI convictions, totaling 12,661.