Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today made the following statement after the media reported that the Obama administration had released perpetrators of serious crimes from immigration facilities prior to removal proceedings. Media reports also claim that the administration is bringing to the United States a terrorist caught on the battlefields of Afghanistan and will have him tried in the federal court system.
“Press reports today have indicated two serious breaches of trust with the Obama administration. Earlier today, it was reported that the Obama administration at best misled Congress, and at worst lied, when it told Congress that immigration detainees it had freed from jail last year were low risk offenders with no serious criminal records. According to media reports, documents show that alleged kidnappers and perpetrators of such heinous crimes such as sexual assault and even homicide were released into communities in the United States. If the report is accurate, the administration has a lot of explaining to do, including why they haven’t answered my letter from last summer asking for the same information.
“In addition, we’re just learning that the Obama administration plans to bring a foreign terrorist, who was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan, to the United States to face criminal charges in federal court. Terrorists taken from the battlefield should be tried in the military commission system that was created for that very purpose, not a civilian court. There’s a reason that even Russia won’t take this terrorist back. Now, to give him the full set of rights that an American citizen is afforded when accused of a crime is a slap in the face to the men and women fighting abroad to keep us safe.”
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