Afghan criminals will be released into U.S., former ICE director says
President Donald Trump is considering releasing from U.S. prisons inmates convicted of gang and drug killings.
In an interview with Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro, acting ICE Chief Andrew M. Tulloch said he believes the criminals are responsible for the recent bloodshed in their home countries and that their release would restore “the social justice agenda that our president articulated during his speech on immigration.”
“We want to restore community safety not just within the United States, but also in Central America,” Tulloch said. “We are thinking, potentially, of just releasing them, but at the end of the day we want them to take their place and go out and live again with their families.”
Tulloch told Pirro that he is also looking at pardoning some of the convicted criminals.
“I’d like to say that we’ve talked about it and that we have no interest in pardoning any. Our interest is to see if we can rehabilitate them,” he said. “It’s a difficult choice – we have to consider who is more dangerous: a felon who has committed a crime of violence or a gang member who has committed a crime of violence – if the former is more dangerous, then that has to be taken into account when we think about the release. I would not make any blanket recommendation until I hear from our legal council.”
When asked if he would give a blanket endorsement to a felon released from prison to his home country, Tulloch said it would be “inappropriate” to do so given the many different nations in which the criminals could pose a threat. (RELATED: White House Press Secretary Delivers Classy Response To Claims About DACA Expiration)
“I’d be concerned about it too,” he said. “I mean, the president of the United States has made it clear that you cannot come into the United States and then say, ‘By coincidence, I’ve learned from the news that there are some problems in some foreign countries,’ and so he’