Representative Lamar Smith of Texas said, “This would be considered the worst prison break in American history, except it was sanctioned by the president and perpetrated by our own immigration officials. They willfully and knowingly put the interests of criminal immigrants before the safety and security of the American people.”

What he was talking about was the wrong-headed decision to release convicted illegal immigrants back into society. Last year 36,007 criminal illegal aliens were released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also known as ICE. A CBS News report documented that these individuals “represented nearly 88,000 convictions, including: 193 homicide convictions, 426 sexual assault convictions, 303 kidnapping convictions, 1,075 aggravated assault convictions, and 16,070 drunk or drugged driving convictions.”

No wonder Congressman Smith called this “the worst prison break in American history.” Releasing criminals (legal or illegal) back into society will certainly increase the number of crimes committed by these individuals. In fact, we don’t have to guess since a previous study has shown just that.

Two years ago, a House of Representative report on the effectiveness of the Secure Communities program analyzed data on 159,286 legal and illegal immigrants arrested by state and local police. This included 7,283 illegal aliens who could have been deported but were taken into custody by ICE. These released illegal aliens went on to commit 19 murders, 142 sex offenses, 1,420 drug crimes, 682 cases of burglary or theft, and 48 arms charges.

Government policies and bungling bureaucrats have contributed to the rash of recent scandals ranging from Fast and Furious to the IRS scandal to the scandal surrounding the Veteran’s Administration. This immigration scandal may be the dumbest and the most dangerous of them all.