Washington, D.C. (November 22, 2022) – A new Center for Immigration Studies report details how our immigration laws handle criminal alien minors who are dealt with, not in adult criminal court, but in the juvenile justice system. This is especially relevant now, as the media is reporting that House Democrats will bring up a bill to grant permanent residence to beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in the lame duck session of Congress.
The CIS report documents that:
- Juveniles commit a large number of serious offenses. For instance, in 2020, there were 1,353 known juvenile homicide offenders and, in 2019, juveniles constituted 8 percent of all arrests for murder.
- Juvenile perpetrators are much more likely to be processed through a juvenile justice system than a criminal court.
- However, our immigration laws do not subject to removal alien minors “adjudicated” delinquent in juvenile courts, as our laws do for aliens convicted in criminal court, even for offenses up to and including murder.
One of the prime selling points for DACA and DREAM Act legislation has been that beneficiaries are not criminals and don’t pose a risk to public safety. But is this true? The DACA program has never disqualified aliens adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court, and as a result many DACA recipients were affiliated with gangs and many had arrest records. USCIS has admitted that “we let those with criminal arrests for sexually assaulting a minor, kidnapping, human trafficking, child pornography, or even murder be provided [DACA] protection”.
Just as the DACA program doesn’t disqualify aliens adjudicated delinquent for serious offenses, neither has previous House-passed DREAM Act legislation, like H.R. 6, the “American Dream and Promise Act of 2021”.
George Fishman, a senior legal fellow at the Center and author of the report, states:
Regardless of one’s views as to whether Congress should legalize illegal aliens who came to the U.S. as minors, it doesn’t make sense to give amnesty to criminals. The lasting devastation to the lives of crime victims and their families is not wiped away simply because the perpetrator was a minor. Congress should also give serious consideration to establishing a ground of deportability for all aliens adjudicated delinquent for offenses that would trigger deportation if resulting in a criminal conviction. |
