By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Shortly after President Trump took office, about half of the 675 immigrants detained across the U.S. either had no criminal convictions or had traffic violations, according to data obtained by the Washington Post.
The records provided by congressional aides showed that 80 had been convicted of assault, two had been convicted of homicide and 57 had convictions for “dangerous drugs.”
A much larger portion – 177 – had no criminal convictions, though charges were pending for 66 of those detained. An additional 163 were convicted of traffic offenses, predominately drunken driving.
Immigration authorities dubbed the nationwide immigration roundup as Operation Cross Check.
The Post wrote:
The two-month total represents a 32 percent increase in deportation arrests over the same period last year. Most are criminals, administration officials have said. But 5,441 were not criminals, double the number of undocumented immigrants arrested for deportation a year earlier. The administration has released a detailed breakdown of the criminal records only of the raids in early February.
Trump has said that public safety threats are his top priority. Shortly after he was elected, he vowed to first deport serious criminals from the United States.
