It’s a day when most of us are probably focusing more on the evil which surfaces among citizens and those in the country legally, but there remains a huge problem all across the nation of illegal aliens, many of whom are convicted criminals, roaming free and committing new crimes. This issue was highlighted earlier in the week when Congress took up the question and found out that ICE knows of a massive number of these free range, illegal immigrants who were released back onto the streets for no reason beyond bureaucratic bumbling and bad policy coming out of the White House. (Washington Free Beacon)

More than 179,000 illegal immigrants convicted of committing crimes, including violent ones, continue to roam free across the United States, with reports indicating that these illegal immigrants commit new crimes “every day,” according to lawmakers and the director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also known as ICE.

Sarah Saldana, ICE’s director, disclosed to Congress on Wednesday that the agency is apprehending and removing fewer illegal immigrants than in past years.

Somewhere around 179,029 “undocumented criminals with final orders of removal” from the United States currently remain at large across the country and are essentially untraceable, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who disclosed these numbers during a Wednesday hearing.

This issue was brought to light in a tragic, forceful way when Kathryn Steinle was murdered in cold blood while walking along the pier this summer in California. Originally described in the press as a “random shooting” by a transient, the truth later came to light and was highlighted by presidential candidate Donald Trump, among others, as a symptom of a much larger problem.

That problem hasn’t gone away and seems to be getting worse. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) took part in the committee hearing and said that illegal immigrant criminals are known to be committing new crimes “every day.” What’s worse is that both critics in Congress and members of ICE have expressed concerns that the Obama administration is “dragging its feet” on the issue and making it harder, not easier, to get the known felons out of the country or at least safely behind bars.

“New crimes are committed every day by criminal aliens, so while we’re not seeing a decrease in crimes committed across this country, we are seeing a decrease in the removals of criminal aliens,” Sessions said.

This cannot be blamed on a lack of financial resources, Sessions said, as Congress has increased funding. Still, deportations have plummeted and the administration is “doing substantially less with substantially more.”

“Our goal should be to keep 100 percent of all criminal aliens out of the United States,” Sessions said. “There’s nothing wrong or controversial about such a policy.”

It may seem as if we have bigger fish to fry elsewhere, particularly with ISIS sympathizers roaming the streets, but this is a problem which we could actually make progress on. It’s taking place on our own turf, not in some far off, battle torn land. But without the support of the administration nothing can be done. It’s the White House that sets policy and establishes priorities for immigration enforcement. As Sessions noted, funding for dealing with illegals has actually gone up, but we seem to be doing less work on this front even as resources have increased.

Enough is enough. We’re certainly capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. We can deal with terrorists without completely ignoring a serious threat inside our own borders and it’s long past time we did so. This shouldn’t have to wait for a new President to be sworn in.