Some 13,000 immigrants convicted of murder both in the US and abroad are living outside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention as several local municipalities refuse to co-operate with the agency.
ICE Acting Director P.J. Lechleitner sent the data collected as of 21 July as part of a request made in March by Republican Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas.
The agency possesses some information about the immigrants and has immigration cases pending against them in the US, but they are not currently in custody, either because they are not a priority for detention, are serving time in prison for their crimes, or because ICE cannot find them. Among criminals who currently live outside detention centres and have criminal records, 13,000 are convicted of murder, 16,000 of sexual assault, 56,000 of drug possession and 65,000 of assault.
Officials stated it is unclear precisely how many people are in detention because ICE does not always have access to this data from state and local law enforcement agencies.
Apart, so far, it is not entirely clear when the first of the 13,000 migrants crossed the US border. Two law enforcement officials familiar with the data say many of the migrants on ICE’s list who are not detained, including serious criminals, crossed the US border under previous administrations. Meanwhile, one official said the release of the data came as a surprise to the White House. As a result, it has not yet commented on the data.
A 2016 DHS inspector general report found that 368,000 immigrant criminals were not apprehended by ICE. As of 5 June 2021, just five months after Donald Trump left office, there were 405,786 convicted immigrant criminals on the no-detention list. As of July of this year, more than 435,719 convicted immigrant criminals were on ICE’s no-detainer list, according to data provided by ICE to Deputy Gonzalez.
The 13,099 immigrants convicted of murder and living in the US may never have had contact with ICE, two law enforcement officials said. Some may have crossed the border and then been released because the Border Patrol has no information about their criminal records, officials added.
In other cases, migrants convicted of crimes can be released by state and local officials after serving their time without notifying ICE, as is common in many sanctuary cities. ICE must then locate the individual upon release to detain and deport him or her. Currently, there are more than 7.5 million immigrants on ICE’s “non-detained” list, meaning they have pending immigration cases but are not currently in custody.
