A top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official has said that hundreds of thousands of migrants with criminal convictions were on the agency’s non-detained docket.
This refers to individuals who have been released from detention with final deportation orders, as well as those released who are waiting for an immigration court hearing.
In a letter to Representative Tony Gonzales (R-TX), ICE deputy director Patrick Lechleitner said that 425,431 convicted criminals were in this category, as well as 222,141 with pending criminal charges.
Speaking to Fox News about the ICE report, Gonzales referred to the numbers as “astronomical.” House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Representative Mark Green (R-TN) said the contents of the letter were “shocking.”
However, American Immigration senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said online that “millions of people on ICE’s non-detained dockets have been here for decades.”
Alex Nowrasteh, of the Cato Institute public policy think tank added that the ICE report on illegal criminal convictions covers decades and not just the last few years.
“It may be shocking to hear that the Biden-Harris administration is actively releasing tens of thousands of criminal illegal aliens into our communities, but their own numbers conclusively prove this to be the case. This defies all common sense,” read a statement. Newsweek has contacted the Harris campaign for comment via email outside of standard working hours.
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told Newsweek: “The data in this letter is being misinterpreted. The data goes back decades; it includes individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody determination was made long before this administration.”
“It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction or currently incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement partners,” the spokesperson added.
Lechleitner noted in his letter that ICE is bound by statutory requirements not to release certain noncitizens from its custody during the pendency of removal proceedings. He added that most noncitizens who are convicted of homicide are typically not eligible for release from ICE custody.
The report came after Vice President Kamala Harris was set to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona.
In a separate post to X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, Harris wrote: “President Biden and I supported the toughest and fairest set of bipartisan border security reforms in decades.
“Congressional Republicans voted against them—twice,” the Democratic presidential candidate added.
“We took executive action to reduce unlawful border crossings, which are now lower than when we took office.”
Prior to this, Harris’ last visit to the southwest border was in 2021 in El Paso, Texas.
Polls have shown that the Democratic Party are trailing Republicans among voters on immigration.
Earlier this year, NBC polling showed Donald Trump with a significant 35-point lead over President Joe Biden on the issue, though a more recent NBC one showed that this lead had fallen to 21 points, while Harris leads Trump by 28 points on protecting immigrants’ rights.
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Update, 9/30/24, 10:45 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a response from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson.
