WASHINGTON — Republicans point to recently released immigration enforcement data to bolster their argument that the Biden administration is allowing migrants who have committed serious crimes go to the US for free But the numbers have been misinterpreted without important context.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement data released to Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales in response to a request he made for information about people under ICE custody who have been convicted of crimes or facing criminal charges. Gonzales’ Texas district includes an 800-mile stretch bordering Mexico.
Gonzales posted the numbers online and they immediately became a flashpoint in the presidential campaign between former President Donald Trump, who has also promised to carry out mass deportationsand Vice President Kamala Harris. Immigration — and the Biden administration’s record on border security — has become a phenomenon most important issue in the elections.
Here’s a look at the data and what it does or doesn’t show:
As of July 21, ICE said that 662,556 people under its supervision had either been convicted of crimes or were facing criminal charges. Nearly 15,000 people were in custody, but the vast majority – 647,572 – were not.
Included in the figures for people not detained by ICE were people found guilty of very serious crimes: 13,099 for murder, 15,811 for assault, 13,423 for weapons offenses and 2,663 for stolen vehicles. The largest category was traffic-related offenses with 77,074, followed by assault with 62,231 and dangerous drugs with 56,533.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, later clarified that the numbers span decades and that those not in custody may be being held by a state or local agency. For example, someone in state prison for murder may be considered a criminal not in the custody of ICE. They are not being held by federal immigration authorities, but they are being detained — a distinction ICE did not make in its report to Gonzales.
Millions of people are on ICE’s “non-detainee docket,” or people under the agency’s supervision who are not in custody. Many are awaiting the outcome of their cases in immigration court, including some wearing monitoring devices. Others have been released after serving their prison sentences because their countries would not take them back.
Republicans pointed to the data as evidence that the Biden administration is admit immigrants into the country with a criminal record and not doing enough to kick out those who commit crimes while they are here.
“The truth is clear: illegal immigrants with criminal records are entering our country. The data released by ICE is beyond disturbing, and it should be a wake-up call to the Biden-Harris administration and cities across the country that are hiding behind sanctuary city policies,” Gonzales said in a news releaseciting commitments by local officials to limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Trump, who has repeatedly portrayed immigrants as bringing lawlessness and crime to America, tweeted multiple screenshots of the data with the words: “13,000 CROSS BORDER WITH MURDER CONVICTIONS.”
He also claimed that the numbers match Biden and Harris’ term in office.
The data was misinterpreted, Homeland Security said in a statement on Sunday.
“The data goes back decades; it includes individuals who have entered the country within the last forty years or more, the vast majority of whom have been in custody long before this administration,” the agency said. “It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction of or currently incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement partners.”
The department also highlighted what it has done to deport people who did not have the right to stay in America. The department said it removed or returned more than 700,000 people last year, which it said was the most since 2010. Homeland Security said it removed or returned more than 700,000 people last year. Since President Joe Biden took office, 180,000 people have been criminally convicted.
The data not only includes people who entered the country during the Biden administration, but also includes people going back decades and who came during previous administrations, said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the predecessor to ICE.
They are accused or convicted of committing crimes in America, as opposed to committing crimes in other countries and then entering the U.S., said Meissner, who is now director of the Migration Policy Institute’s U.S. immigration policy program.
“This is not something that is a function of what the Biden administration has done,” she said. “Certainly, this includes the Biden years, but this is an accumulation of many years, and certainly goes back to at least 2010, 2011, 2012.”
A Report 2017 by Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General says that as of August 2016, ICE had approximately 368,574 people on its non-detainee docket who were convicted criminals. That number will be reached in June 2021 amounted to 405,786.
ICE has limited resources. The number of people under supervision has increased dramatically, while staffing levels have not increased. As the agency noted in a 2023 year-end reportit often has to send staff to assist at the border, relieving them of their normal duties.
The number of people under ICE custody but not in custody has grown from 3.3 million just before Biden took office to just over 7 million last spring.
“The simple answer is that as a system we have not devoted enough resources to the parts of the government dedicated to monitoring and ultimately removing people who are deportable,” Meissner said.
ICE also has logistical and legal limits on who they can detain. The budget allows the agency to house 41,500 people at a time. John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE director under then-President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2014, said detaining people accused or convicted of the most serious crimes is always a top priority.
But once someone has been served a final removal order — meaning a court has determined that he or she has no right to remain in the country — he or she cannot be held in custody forever while ICE works out how to get him or her back can come home. A 2001 Supreme Court ruling essentially prevented ICE from detaining these people for more than six months when there was no reasonable expectation that they could be returned.
Not every country is willing to take back its citizens, Sandweg said.
He said he suspects that a large number of those convicted of murder but not held by ICE are people who have been ordered deported, but the agency cannot remove them because their home countries will not take them back .
“It’s a common scenario. Even among the countries that take people back, they can be very selective about who they take back,” he said.
The US could also face problems deporting people to countries with which it has lukewarm relations.
Homeland Security did not respond to questions about how many countries would not take back their citizens. The 2017 Watchdog report put the number at 23 countries, plus a further 62 countries that cooperated but where there were delays in obtaining items such as passports or travel documents.