Subject: Immigrant Criminals Re-offend More Often Than ICE Estimates

A recent investigation by The Boston Globe revealed that 30 percent of 323 criminal immigrants released in New England from 2008-2012 went on to re-offend, a rate more than four times as high as previously suggested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

While speaking before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee in 2011, ICE Executive Associate Director Gary Mead saidonly 7 percent of illegal aliens released since 2009 had been re-booked into ICE custody. But The Globe review of records in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine showed recidivism was substantially higher.

The Globe investigation took three years, as staffers searched police logs, Internet databases, court records and media reports to identify which criminal immigrants had committed new crimes. A judge ordered the names of the 323 immigrants released in 2013.

Among the crimes The Globe uncovered: