A release of 6,000 federal prisoners slated to begin Friday will include 2,000 who are illegal aliens, Pinal, Arizona County Sheriff Paul Babeu says, and he doesn't expect them to be deported.
"They're promising they're going to turn them over to ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and they're going to deport them because of their severe criminal records," Babeu said Thursday on Fox News Channel's
"Your World with Neil Cavuto."
"Well, how's that that worked for us so far? It hasn't."
Babeu, who earlier this month
announced he is running for Congress next year, said there is "no chance of them being deported to their country of origin. This just another lie."
Those being released have been in prison for an average of nine years and "don't come out of a federal prison as better," he said.
A
Los Angeles Times story cited overcrowding as the reason for the mass release, set for Friday and Monday, but added that even those who are American citizens aren't seen has having been reformed.
The prisoners will not be required to spend long periods in halfway houses and that is "a major concern," Washington lawyer Malcolm C. Young told the Times. "We have known for years that reintegrating people back into society is a challenge, and the results have not been very good."
The illegal immigrants will fall under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [DACA] action, and they will stay in the country, Babeu said.
"And so what do you think they're going to be doing when they're let out of prison?" he said. "They released a murderer in my county from Russia. This guy stabbed a guy, poured fuel on him, lit him on fire, tortured him to his death. … We're talking the small portion of illegals that are here, committing these heinous acts, murder, rape, kidnapping, a small portion.
"They should have no option, they should be deported to their country of origin, never to return again, and the president can't even do that right."
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