Trump Administration Pushes Back Against Democratic Effort to Cap Jail Space for Illegals

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th February, 2019) Local law enforcement agencies throughout the United States will be forced to set free violent illegal alien criminals into the public if Democrats in the US Congress succeed in capping the number of beds allowed in immigrant detention facilities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Deputy Director Matt Albin told reporters.

"If we are forced to live within a cap based on interior arrests we will immediately be forced to release criminal aliens that are currently sitting in our custody," Albin said on Monday. "We'll be releasing gang members. We'll be releasing individuals convicted of crimes of domestic violence and drug crimes and we'll be limited in our ability to respond to state and local law enforcement agencies that are making arrests for these very crimes today."

Albin was referring to a House of Representatives-Senate conference that is attempting to reach a compromise over illegal immigration that threatens to shut down the US Federal government on Friday for the second time this year, following a record 35-day shutdown that began in December.

On Sunday, talks broke off when Democrats introduced a new demand, a cap of 16,500 beds in ICE detention centers, compared with 42,000 beds at present and an administration push to increase space to more than 50,000 beds.

The facilities at issue are for illegal aliens captured throughout the United States as opposed to arrests made at or near the southern US border that have dominated headlines.

Democrats on the 17-member conference say the cap is needed to force the Trump administration to focus on catching violent criminal aliens instead of conducting roundups that also sweep up illegal immigrants with no history of violence.

Albin said that supporters of a bed cap are buying into efforts by some Democrats to abolish ICE and using a back door strategy through the budget process.