WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security last year released 36,007 convicted illegal aliens who are facing deportation, including 193 convicted of homicide and 426 convicted of sexual assault, according to new federal data.

The people released had completed their criminal jail sentences, and nearly all still face deportation and are required to check in with immigration authorities while their deportation cases are pending.

The data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were first disclosed by the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative group that advocates for less immigration. In its report, the group said "the vast majority of these releases from ICE custody were discretionary, not required by law ... nor the result of local sanctuary policies." It did not describe how many illegal aliens the agency decided to release and how many judges ordered to be released.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, Barbara Gonzalez, said Friday that in many cases cited in the report, the agency was required by law to release the people while their deportation cases are pending.

"The releases required by court decisions account for a disproportionate number of the serious crimes listed in the report," she said.

Gonzalez said mandatory releases account for more than 72 percent of the illegal aliens convicted of homicide.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and his predecessor, Janet Napolitano, have repeatedly said that deporting illegal aliens who pose a threat to national security or public safety is the Department of Homeland Security's top priority. And Immigration and Customs Enforcement has routinely touted increases in the number of convicted criminals deported annually. Last year, the agency said 59 percent of the 368,644 people removed had been convicted previously of a crime.

But the releases that weren't mandated by law, including 28 percent of the aliens with homicide convictions, undermine the government's argument that it uses its declining resources for immigration enforcement to find and detain serious criminal immigrants who might pose a threat to public safety or national security.

Details of how many convicted illegal aliens were released in the past year came out during a months-long review by Johnson of the deportation policies of President Barack Obama's administration.

Johnson has not said when he expects that review to conclude, but in an interview Thursday with PBS' NewsHour, he said a program used to identify potentially deportable aliens in local jails needs a "fresh start." The Secure Communities program has been criticized by immigration advocates who said it too often swept up immigrants accused of traffic violations or other minor offenses.

Johnson suggested it might be revamped to focus on people who actually have been convicted of crimes, not just those arrested or booked.

"In my judgment, Secure Communities should be an efficient way to work with state and local law enforcement to reach the removal priorities that we have, those who are convicted of something," Johnson said.

The program allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to run fingerprints of anyone booked for a local or state crime through a federal database for immigration violations. If there's a match, the agency can ask local police and sheriffs to detain the person, and the agency can then decide whether to deport them.

The program, which was started in 2008 under the Bush administration but has been expanded under Obama, has led to complaints from police and sheriff's officials who say people are afraid to interact with law enforcement officers and report crimes because they worry they'll be deported.

More than 150 civil- and immigrant-rights groups signed a letter to Johnson on Friday urging him to end the use of detentions under Secure Communities.

But some Republicans -- who have criticized Secure Communities for deporting too few people, not too many -- warned that Obama should not be taking steps to relax enforcement and said the data on releases show the administration is not fulfilling its duty in immigration enforcement. In a joint statement, Republican Reps. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Lamar Smith of Texas said the disclosure was "incredibly alarming."

"Most could be detained by immigration enforcement authorities if the administration had the will to do so," they said. "These criminals should be locked up, not roaming our streets."

Information for this article was contributed by Erica Werner of The Associated Press.

A Section on 05/17/2014