[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 34 (Monday, March 11, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S1279]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, a few weeks ago, U.S. Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE, initiated an unexplainable 
order to take action to reduce the population of detained illegal 
aliens, and they said it was for budgetary reasons. I quote a spokesman 
for ICE, who said the decision was made because ``fiscal uncertainty 
remains over the continuing resolution and possible sequestration . . . 
''
  Well, we have had fiscal uncertainty for 4 years now, and the 
decision to release these detainees was made before the sequestration 
even took place. The procedures put in place under the continuing 
resolution and the resources for covering the costs of detaining these 
illegal immigrants until they could be brought to trial and sent back 
home were put in place by the funding we provided for the agency in 
September, running through the end of this month, or until March 27. So 
a lot of questions need to be answered about ICE's decision because 
there was a furor over why we are releasing illegal immigrants back on 
the streets of America. Why are we putting these people back out on the 
streets when the law didn't require it? The resources were there to 
keep there, and yet many were released before the sequestration even 
took place--before the across-the-board cuts even took place--and I 
want to get some answers. So I wrote Secretary Napolitano a letter 
asking her to provide answers to a series of questions, which I will 
state in a moment, and have the answer to me in my office by Friday, 
March 8.
  Well, I returned today to find the answer was not there. I could give 
the Secretary the benefit of the doubt and say it is in the mail. We 
know it doesn't always guarantee next-day delivery. Nevertheless, I 
think the American people need to know. Particularly those impacted, 
those communities impacted by these illegal immigrants--not knowing who 
they are, not knowing why they were released, not knowing whether we 
can bring them back to stand before a judge and plead their case or be 
processed for return.
  The law enforcement officials in these communities are up in arms 
because they don't know who these people are. They don't know whether 
they are criminals; they don't know whether they are ever going to be 
able to bring them back into the ICE system and be detained and readied 
for processing. So that is why I asked the Secretary to respond to my 
letter.
  Subsequent to that, officials at ICE have denied recent press reports 
regarding plans to release even more detained illegal immigrants. Last 
Tuesday, an internal ICE document obtained by the House Judiciary 
Committee revealed a plan of ICE to continue reducing detention center 
populations each week while the sequestration is in place. That 
document shows one scenario where the number of illegal immigrants in 
custody could be reduced by more than 1,000 a week between February 15 
and March 31. The initial report said it was a couple hundred--I think 
300 was the number given--only to find out it is more than 1,000, and 
now we find out it may be more than 1,000 each week for about a 6- or 
7-week period of time.
  What we are trying to do is get the facts and get an explanation of 
what has happened, why it took place in the manner it did, and what is 
the administration's plan for going forward with this. I am doing this 
because as ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on 
Homeland Security, I am getting all kinds of questions from people--not 
just my colleagues but others across the country--basically asking what 
is going on here. I wish to be able to respond to those questions with 
answers, or have the Department respond.
  As the head of the Department, Secretary Napolitano needs to provide 
information on who made this decision, why this decision was made, why 
was it made before sequestration even took effect, why was the number 
of released individuals said to be around 300 when it was well over 
1,000? Releasing the detained individuals has the potential to put 
these communities at risk and sends a message to those who come here 
and break the law as illegal immigrants that our government is not 
serious. I am sure word is spreading through Mexico and other ports of 
entry to illegal immigrants: Don't worry, you may get picked up; you 
may get put in a detention center; they will provide a bed, food, and 
so on, but they are releasing 1,000 a week. I can just see the 
traffickers now pitching this to tens of hundreds or thousands of 
people, taking their money, getting them across the border, reaching 
the fence, or tunneling under the fence or climbing over the fence, or 
any of a number of other ways they are bringing illegals into this 
country.
  I spent 3 days down on the border. While we are making some strides, 
we have a long way to go to stop this illegal immigration. So we need 
clarification and we need an explanation of what has happened.
  Let me state some of the questions I have raised to the Secretary:
  Why did the Federal Government release detained illegal immigrants 1 
week before the sequester took effect and blame it on budget cuts when 
those cuts had not even yet been put into place?
  Why didn't ICE take the proper steps necessary to manage its 
resources efficiently across the various programs? As I said earlier, 
the Congress itself provided them with adequate resources to maintain a 
level of 34,000 illegal detainees per year and not go below that. They 
do not need to go below that number because they had the resources to 
pay for it. They are required by Congress to do that.
  What triggered ICE to instruct field offices to reduce the detainee 
population a week before the sequestration hit?
  How many illegal immigrants were released during that time?
  Exactly how many of these individuals were released solely due to 
budget reasons?
  How many of the released individuals, if any, were designated as 
criminal? The law enforcement people obviously need to know that.
  Have instructions been given to field offices to reduce the intake 
and arrests of illegal aliens into detention?
  These are just some of the many questions I asked Secretary 
Napolitano because I think Congress and the American people deserve 
answers.
  As the head of the Department, Secretary Napolitano has the ultimate 
responsibility to oversee the decisions in the management of agency 
resources. She said this decision was made at a level below her. We 
hear a lot of that from administration officials: It is not my fault, 
it is somebody else's fault. That is why they rise to the position of 
Secretary, because they are the ones who ultimately oversee the program 
and need to take responsibility, or at least need to answer a question 
posed by a Member of the Senate as to why they did what they did and 
how we are going to fix this.
  Failing to respond to the Congress and to our requests and the 
failure to provide the American people with more information behind 
this decision is simply not something we should accept. I will keep 
pressing for these answers.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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