Immigration

Thousands Of Non-Citizens Convicted Of Homicide, Other Crimes Roaming Free In US, ICE Says

Migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona.

Thousands of illegal migrants and other non-citizens convicted of homicide, sexual assault and other crimes are currently free in the U.S., according to federal data revealed in a Wednesday letter.

As of July 21, there were in total over 662,566 non-citizens with criminal histories on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) national docket, according to a letter delivered to Republican Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales. The figure includes those who are currently detained by ICE and those who are on their non-detained docket, meaning they are roaming free in the U.S. (RELATED: Ohio Congressmen Beg Biden-Harris Admin For Emergency Funding For Springfield Amid Migrant Crisis)

Among those on the docket are 435,719 who are convicted criminals and another 226,847 who have pending criminal charges, according to the letter. Only 14,994 of those on the national docket who had been convicted or had charges pending were actually detained.

The criminal non-citizens not on ICE’s detained docket include 13,099 convicted of homicide, 15,811 convicted of sexual assault, 14,301 convicted of burglary, and numerous other illegal migrants convicted of serious offenses.

WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 14: U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) speaks alongside U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) at a news conference on border security outside of the U.S. Capitol Building on November 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House Republicans spoke to reporters about the tabled impeachment motion for U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and the southern border. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“Despite the challenges of operating within a broken immigration system, and in the face of an enormous workload and consistently limited funding, [the Department of Homeland Security] continues to enforce the law to secure our borders,” ICE Deputy Director Patrick Lechleitner wrote to Gonzales.

“We are removing and returning record numbers of migrants who are unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States, and prioritizing for removal those who present national security and public safety risks, and recent border crossers,” Lechleitner continued.

The ICE letter also detailed the extent to which sanctuary cities are restricting the agency’s ability to do their job by ignoring detainer requests for criminal aliens.

“Kamala Harris isn’t just Biden’s Border Czar, she’s also his Abolish ICE Director — directing the agency in charge of enforcing our immigration laws to allow convicted murderers and rapists to roam free,” RJ Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is an act of treason.”

More than 23,000 ICE detainer requests were denied from October 1, 2020, through July 22, 2024, according to ICE. The agency also noted that 2,897 declined detainers by state or local law enforcement agencies included a subject non-citizen who went on to be apprehended by deportation officers.