Sheriff Tells House Judiciary Committee: Obama’ Open-Door Immigration Policy Leads To Crime Surge

According to a Maryland sheriff, President Obama’s open-door immigration policy has opened the door to something else: an escalation in gangland crime.

Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins spoke to the House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the impact of illegal aliens on crime, and stated:

Case by case amnesty, backdoor amnesty, DACA programs, and the Dream Act were pushed through by executive order … Policy shifts by President Obama weakened and ruined Secure Communities, and did not allow action by ICE when Sheriffs and police departments ignored detainers, allowing criminal to be released back on the streets. In effect, criminal aliens that should have been deported have been allowed to remain and commit more serious crimes becoming violent offenders.

Jenkins, an articulate spokesman who had reams of data to buttress his accusations, added, “Transnational alien gangs are structured criminal enterprises involved in drug and human trafficking, crimes of violence over turf, retaliation, money laundering, and other serious crime. As these gangs are recruiting locally and increasing in number, so does the associated crime within communities.” He spoke of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs, which have burgeoned in his county.

Jenkins’ statistics included these nuggets: More than 75 active known validated transnational criminal gang members reside in Frederick County, with many others thought to be gang members; the MS-13 and 18th Street alien gangs recruit new members in local schools as well as the region around them; at least five examples have occurred of attempted 1st and 2nd degree murder, armed robbery, 1st degree assault, home invasion, armed carjacking, kidnapping, use of a firearm in the commission of a violent felony, and carrying concealed deadly weapons.

In addition, in 2014, eight criminal aliens were charged with rape and sexual assault of children between the ages of 5-14, with two of the girls impregnated.

Jenkins cited a case in which one of his deputies was attacked by an MS-13 gang member while the officer was sitting in his cruiser doing paperwork.

In February, Jessica Vaughan, the policy director for the Center for Immigration Studies, testified before the House, asserting Obama’s open-door policy had escalated murder and violent crime. She said:

Established gangs have been able to transfer an unknown number of experienced foot soldiers from Central America to help colonize new criminal territory in the United States … The tide of new young people, many of whom have already been exposed or involved in street gangs at home, has provided a huge pool of new recruits for the gangs here. Gangs such as MS-13 and 18th Street are enjoying a brutal revival in certain parts of the country and are establishing themselves in new places.

Her perspective was echoed by Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council. After U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were told to release illegal immigrants, eschew ordering them to appear at deportation hearings, and give up tracking illegal immigrants who had been released, Judd told the House, “We might as well abolish our immigration laws altogether.”