A US House of Representatives committee charged that the Obama administration is allowing a significant number of "criminal aliens" to remain in the United States.
The Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee blasted the Obama administration's Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) for "needlessly endangering our communities."
"By scrapping a law enforcement tool that keeps our communities safe and replacing it with a new program that permits the release of criminal aliens, President Obama is needlessly endangering our communities," Republican Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte charged.
The PEP was part of the immigration executive actions Obama announced last November.
As part of the program, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new policy in the apprehension, detention and removal of undocumented immigrants in the US.
Falling under Priority 1 of the program are those aliens who are considered threats to national security, border security and public safety. These are the aliens who are engaged or suspected of engaging in terrorism or espionage, those convicted of an offense in which they participated in a criminal street gang and those convicted of a felony or aggravated felony.
Under Priority 2 are aliens convicted of three or more misdemeanor offences other than minor traffic offences and those convicted of "significant misdemeanor," including domestic violence, sexual abuse or exploitation, burglary, unlawful possession or use of a firearm, drug trafficking, driving under the influence or those sentenced to time in custody of 90 days or more.
According to the House Judiciary Committee, the PEP's "priorities" ignore entire categories of removable criminal aliens under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
"After the implementation of PEP, DHS will not pursue the vast majority of criminal aliens who commit the following offences: fraud or material misrepresentation in the immigration process; drug possession offences; most theft offences, including identity theft; nearly all crimes involving moral turpitude; and, aliens who have misdemeanors that the Administration does not deem to be significant," it said.
The committee further charged that aliens who have been charged or arrested for serious criminal offences will not be pursued under PEP.
"For DHS, permitting the criminal alien to remain on the streets overrides protecting the community," the committee said.
A Fox News report, meanwhile, said President Obama's border enforcement program has not stopped illegal immigrant women and children from entering the US border last year and those charged with crimes are not showing up in courts.
It said data from the Department of Justice Executive Office of Immigration Review showed that 84 percent of the adults with children who were allowed to remain free pending their trial absconded and less than 4 percent left the US voluntarily.
The report said undocumented women and children who were not detained and released to relatives and charities cannot be tracked down by the US government.
The data involved women and children from Central America detained since July 18, 2014.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has since detained 83,385 adults and children, and immigration courts completed 24,842 cases.
Of these, more than 64 percent, or 16,136, didn't show up in court and only 908 left voluntarily.
Among those who were not detained, 25,000 had their initial appearance; 13,000 are still in the system and 12,000 had their cases completed. Of the 12,000 people, 10,000 failed to appear.
It said 84 percent of women and children who were not detained and allowed to remain free after their first appearance in court never showed up again for their case.
Almost all of those who were in detention centres did show up in court.
Immigrant advocates are seeking to close federal detention centres and about 130 House Democrats and 33 senators have called on ICE to stop family detention.
