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US Senate Bill to End ‘Catch-And-Release’ of Convicted Immigrants

© East News / Eduardo Verdugo/AP/MXEV115Immigrants walk along the rail tracks after getting off a train during their journey toward the US-Mexico border in Ixtepec, southern Mexico
Immigrants walk along the rail tracks after getting off a train during their journey toward the US-Mexico border in Ixtepec, southern Mexico - Sputnik International
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US Senator Jim Inhofe has proposed a bill called Keep Our Communities Safe Act, aimed to cover a loophole in the current US immigration legislation, allowing convicted immigrants to reenter US society every year.

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WASHINGTON, January 30 (Sputnik) — A new US Senate bill aims to eliminate a legal quirk that allows tens of thousands of convicted immigrants to reenter US society every year, Senator Jim Inhofe said in a press release.

“In 2013 alone, more than 36,000 immigrants convicted for crimes such as homicide and sexual assault were released back into our communities after their countries of origin failed to respond to deportation orders,” Inhofe said on Thursday. “Keep Our Communities Safe Act would close the catch-and-release loophole and require [US Department of Homeland Security] DHS to re-certify every six months if a person is a threat.”

The legislation, proposed by Inhofe, would close the legal loophole created by a US Supreme Court case in 2001 that requires authorities to release any immigrant that has not been accepted for deportation after six months of detainment, Inhofe stated.

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Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, also took aim at US President Barack Obama’s immigration policies.

“The Obama Administration is failing to protect American communities with its lackadaisical immigration policies,” Inhofe said. “While the president issues executive orders to flood our borders with illegal immigrants, he could be using his pen and phone to close a dangerous loophole that is allowing immigrants, who have committed a crime of violence or an aggravated felony, to roam freely in the United States.”

The legal loophole came to the forefront after an incident that began in 2006, when the United States set free a convicted Vietnamese immigrant it was unable to deport, who is now facing charges for allegedly murdering five people in 2012, Inhofe added.

In November, President Obama announced that about 5 million undocumented immigrants who are parents of US citizens or lawful permanent residents will have a right to obtain temporary relief from removal, as well as an opportunity to work in the United States legally and pay taxes. In December, 25 mostly Republican US states led by Texas filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Obama administration’s executive action on immigration.

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