The Department of Homeland Security is releasing drug smugglers and human traffickers, and perhaps even suspected terrorists and violent felons, as a matter of policy ? because it doesn?t have the resources to keep them in custody.

In a classified memo issued last fall, the DHS laid out ?priorities? for handling illegal aliens who?ve been apprehended within the United States.

In a bullet-point list, the October 2004 memo ? obtained exclusively by this columnist ? separates all captured illegals into four categories: ?Mandatory,? ?High Priority,? ?Medium Priority,? and ?Lower Priority.?

Only the worst violent felons (think rapists and murderers), individuals known to be terrorists, and those who have been previously deported are deemed ?mandatory? holds. Everyone else can be released if no space is available.

Among illegals not deemed ?mandatory? holds:

? "Aliens who are subject to an ongoing national security investigation."

? Aliens whom we aren't sure are terrorists but who still "raise a national security concern" based on "specific information or intelligence specific to the individual" ? in other words, suspected terrorists.

? Aliens who "exhibit specific, articulable intelligence-based risk factors for terrorism or national security concern."

Perhaps more disturbing: Buried beneath the four groups listed as ?mandatory? and eight as ?high priority,? suspected drug smugglers and human traffickers are merely ?medium priority.?

Border Patrol agents find it particularly disconcerting to release human traffickers, whom they view as both murderers and grave security threats ? people with no scruples who will take anyone across the border, for a price.

When they are released according to the procedures in the memo, the illegal aliens are given notices to appear for a hearing. Of course, most don?t. ?The number is actually around 3 percent,? notes Center for Immigration Study analyst Jessica Vaughan.

Political correctness can be seen in the classified memo.  It explicitly prohibits racial ? or even national origin ? profiling.  A determination for holding an individual cannot be ?based solely on the alien?s race, ethnicity, nationality or religion.?  In other words, 19 Saudi Muslims are considered no greater security threat ? or deemed more important for detainment ? than 19 Mexican farm hands. Continued...