Executive Amnesty for Traffic Offenders?

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies examines the potential public safety impact of an executive action to benefit alien traffic offenders, one of the several directives reportedly being considered by the Obama administration. Such a presidential directive would protect tens of thousands of illegal aliens from deportation each year. The analysis found that since 2004, 258,689 aliens whose most serious state or local conviction was a traffic offense were deported by ICE.

These individuals are not "harmless," as proponents of such a policy have suggested. An amnesty for those "convicted exclusively of traffic crimes" would include those convicted of drunk or drugged driving, vehicular homicide, carjacking, vehicular homicide, and joyriding.

More than half (57%) of deported traffic offenders were convicted of drunk or drugged driving. The number of illegal aliens deported after drunk or drugged driving convictions (as their most serious offense) numbered 22,740 in 2013.

View the full report at: http://cis.org/executive-action-to-bennefit-alien-traffic-offenders

In addition, more than half (55%) of the traffic offenders deported by ICE in the last 10 years had been deported at least once before.

"An amnesty to benefit alien traffic offenders undermines the enforcement of immigration law and circumvents Congress with the sole goal of protecting illegal aliens from deportation," said Dan Cadman, a Center fellow and co-author of the report. "To suggest those convicted of traffic crimes, many of which involved fatalities, are not a threat to public safety or are not worthy of law enforcement resources is a slap in the face to family members who have lost loved ones to reckless illegal alien drivers."

"Drunk driving is one of the most common violent crimes committed in America, and according to MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), one-third of the problem is repeat offenders," noted Jessica Vaughan, the other co-author and the Center's Director of Policy Studies. "It is perfectly appropriate for ICE agents to remove those who not only are here illegally, but also have endangered the public by driving impaired. The Obama administration should not seek political gain by protecting illegal aliens who are a menace on our roadways."

Key Findings: 

• An Obama administration executive action that protects from deportation those aliens convicted exclusively of traffic offenses potentially would shield thousands of dangerous drivers, including many convicted of drunk driving, from deportation each year judging by actual deportation records.
• Traffic crimes include a wide spectrum of offenses and crimes, ranging from drunk or drugged driving, to vehicular homicide, to joyriding, to improper lane changes, to driving without a license or insurance. Many of these are serious, involve fatalities, and put the public at risk. Proponents of such an executive action should be pressed to define exactly what offenses are meant or intended by the phrase.
• More than half (57 percent) of all aliens deported from 2004 to 2013 whose most serious conviction was a traffic-related crime were convicted of drunk or drugged driving.
• Other traffic-related criminal convictions of deported aliens included: carjacking, hit-and-run, vehicular homicide/manslaughter, transporting alcohol, vehicle theft, joyriding, and license offenses.
• The majority of all traffic-related crimes in the 10-year dataset were committed by adult male aliens (from late teens to mid-30s in age) who entered the country without inspection across the border, and therefore were almost certainly driving without a license and uninsured.
• Most aliens deported after convictions for traffic crimes had other aggravating circumstances that weighed on their case. More than half (55 percent) of aliens deported from 2004 to 2013 after traffic-related convictions had been deported from the country at least once before. (Re-entry after deportation is a felony.) In 2013, 70 percent of traffic offenders were prior-deportees.
• An even larger percentage (60 percent) of aliens convicted of lesser traffic offenses (a subset of traffic crimes) were prior deportees.

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985. It is the nation's only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States.

Contact: Marguerite Telford
www.cis.org, 202-455-8384

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SOURCE Center for Immigration Studies