At Last! House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas DHS

As proof that sometimes good things eventually come to patient patriotic Americans, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith issued a subpoena late Friday to the Department of Homeland Security. Smith is demanding that Secretary Janet Napolitano surrender all her records regarding the Obama administration and DHS’s prosecutorial discretion policy that will drop thousands of aliens from deportation proceedings. On November 2, the Immigration Subcommittee authorized the subpoena by a 7-4 vote. Napolitano has until November 10 to comply.

Matthew Chandler, DHS representative said that the department had planned to submit the information even without a subpoena.

Said Chandler:

"During numerous conversations over the past week, including this morning, DHS stated to the committee it will provide the data requested with or without a subpoena."

Pro-immigration Democrats, insisting that they promised all along to cooperate with the Judiciary Committee, accused Smith of looking "for a fight." But according to Smith, he first requested the information covered by his subpoena in an August 22 letter to Napolitano without receiving a reply. Read Smith’s correspondence here.

In his statement to the press, Smith summarized his frustration in dealing with Napolitano:

"For the past two months, the Department of Homeland Security has dragged their feet and stonewalled my request for information.  The Administration is wrongfully trying to keep crucial information from the American people.  The American people have a right to know what crimes 300,000 immigrants have committed after ICE intentionally chose not to detain them.

"Are administration officials afraid that the information will show that illegal immigrants intentionally released by ICE have committed crimes that could have been prevented?  Why else would they hide the information?

"We gave the Obama administration two months’ notice of our request.  Unfortunately, their continued refusal to provide the information has left us no choice other than to subpoena the relevant documents."

At issue is the Obama administration’s deferred action policy which, based on the opinions of Immigration Customs and Enforcement director John Morton and his staff, grants amnesty to several hundred thousand illegal aliens who they consider to be non-threatening. Implementation of deferred action, which circumvents Congress, is according to Napolitano, set to begin shortly.