Jim Kouri
Law Enforcement Examiner
12/13/2011
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today sent another letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano following the Department’s continued delay in providing a list of illegal and criminal immigrants that have been flagged by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but have not been detained or placed in removal proceedings by the agency.
If DHS fails to produce the requested data in its entirety by December 9, the Committee intends to move forward and consider a resolution to hold DHS in contempt of Congress, Rep. Smith stated. December 9 came and went without a Napolitano response.
On November 18, Chairman Smith warned DHS in a letter that the Committee plans to seek enforcement of the subpoena to the fullest extent allowed by the law. But in a letter dated December 2, DHS again did not provide documents responsive to the subpoena. Instead, DHS officials requested another 30 days to compile additional information that has not yet been formally requested by the Committee. According to DHS officials’ own statements, the subpoenaed information already has been compiled, but they refuse to hand it over to the House Judiciary Committee.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today sent another letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano following the Department’s continued delay in providing a list of illegal and criminal immigrants that have been flagged by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but have not been detained or placed in removal proceedings by the agency.
On November 18, Chairman Smith warned DHS in a letter that the Committee plans to seek enforcement of the subpoena to the fullest extent allowed by the law. But in a letter dated December 2, DHS again did not provide documents responsive to the subpoena. Instead, DHS officials requested another 30 days to compile additional information that has not yet been formally requested by the Committee. According to DHS officials’ own statements, the subpoenaed information already has been compiled, but they refuse to hand it over to the House Judiciary Committee.
Justice Elena Kagan said Monday that she would recuse herself from the challenge to Arizona’s controversial immigration law, presumably because she served as President Obama’s solicitor general when the federal government filed the original lawsuit against the state.Her recusal opens up the possibility for a rare 4-4 split on the court; since a lower court blocked provisions of the law, the tie would uphold that ruling and function as a win for the Obama administration. But the court would not be able to settle the larger issue of whether the Arizona statute is constitutional in the event of a tie…
