PICKET: House Judiciary Chair to Napolitano: Produce ICE docs or face contempt

House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, Texas Republican, sent another letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday demanding "a list of illegal and criminal immigrants that have been flagged by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but have not been detained or placed in removal proceedings by the agency."

According to a statement from the House Judiciary Committee, the letter sent to Secretary Napolitano said that  "If DHS fails to produce the requested data in its entirety by December 9, the Committee intends to move forward and consider a resolution to hold DHS in contempt of Congress."

Four months ago Chairman Smith requested unique identifiers for the criminal immigrants intentionally released by ICE so that the Committee could cross-check the information to see if these individuals had gone on to commit further  crimes.  

The information would be used show Congress how the problem of criminal immigrants can affect public safety. According to the Chairman, the requested data was subpoenaed on November 4 after Smith's office was unable to get the initial information requested from DHS. According to today's statement from judiciary:

On November 18, Chairman Smith warned DHS in a letter that the Committee plans to seek enforcement of the subpoena to the fullest extent allowed by the law.  But in a letter dated December 2, DHS again did not provide documents responsive to the subpoena.  Instead, DHS officials requested another 30 days to compile additional information that has not yet been formally requested by the Committee.  According to DHS officials’ own statements, the subpoenaed information already has been compiled, but they refuse to hand it over to the House Judiciary Committee. 

In the latest letter to Secretary Napolitano sent from Chairman Smith, DHS has until December 9 to comply with the House Judiciary Committee Chairman's demand for the subpoenaed information, or "the Committee intends to go forward and consider a resolution to hold DHS in contempt of Congress and will proceed to a vote on such a resolution promptly.”