Republican federal lawmakers have asked the Obama Administration and the Bureau of Prisons to “place an immediate hold” on granting a contract for additional housing for criminal alien inmates until after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
“The national election this November and the recent surge in illegal immigration across our southern border has placed a renewed focus on BOP’s need to provide for the housing of undocumented and criminal aliens,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “We do not believe it is appropriate to rush through a solicitation in the final days of the Obama Administration.”
The letter was signed by Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and Texas Representatives Michael T. McCaul and Bill Flores. Utah Republican Senator Orrin G. Hatch also signed the letter.
“Given the upcoming change in administrations, we believe it would be premature for the current Administration to move forward with CAR 16.” “CAR 16” stands for Criminal Alien Requirement 16 Solicitation No. RFP-PCC-0023. Criminal Alien requirement prisons house criminal illegal aliens that have been convicted of a federal crime.
The Republican lawmakers say that the Criminal Alien Requirement 16 Solicitation has been pending since early 2015. They note that the needs at that time was for 10,800 beds. The requested capacity was reduced to 3,600 beds after the Obama Administration directed the Bureau of Prisons to begin phasing out the use of public-private partnerships. The BOP reduced the requested number by approximately one-third, or 3,600 beds.
As reported by the San Antonio Express-News, the contract would have renewed existing agreements for the operation of prisons and could have resulted in some facilities, including facilities in Texas, in being shut down.
The senators and representatives said that they “believe the next administration should have the opportunity to review the BOP’s needs and develop its own policy position.”
In July 2015, then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stated that after getting out the “bad” illegal immigrants, he would get the other illegal immigrants out and “have an expedited way of getting them back into the country so they can be legal,” because “when somebody’s terrific, we want them back here” legally, he explained. Trump added, “Number one, the first thing we do, is get the bad ones out. We have a lot of bad dudes as I said, you have a lot of really bad people here. They’re in our prisons, and they’re clogging up our prisons. I want to them to go back — and not only Mexico, I want to get them back to the country … and I want them to be in their prisons.”
In August 2015, Trump released a detailed immigration policy paper that discusses his steps to not only put Americans first, but as reported by Breitbart News, calls for a “mandatory return” of any criminal illegal aliens to their home country. Mr. Trump added, “The Obama Administration has released 76,000 aliens from its custody with criminal convictions since 2013 alone.” “All criminal aliens must be returned to their home countries, a process which can be aided by canceling any visas to foreign countries which will not accept their own criminals, and making it a separate and additional crime to commit an offense while here illegally.”
Lana Shadwick is a writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2.
Texas Lawmakers Letter Re Federal Bureau of Prisons CAR 16 Solicitation #RFP-PCC-0023 by lanashadwick on Scribd
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