A beforehand obscure immigration dataset entered the general public lexicon over the previous week, sparking a brand new assault line for Republicans and a deluge of fact-checking over an correct, but decontextualized, quantity.
Final week, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) drew consideration to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “non-detained docket,” one of many datasets that, for most individuals, isn’t just some clicks away.
“I asked [acting ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner], one, how many criminal aliens are in this country? What I mean by that, I’m not talking about your abuelita that came over years ago and may or may not be documented. I’m not talking about the guy that’s maybe building a house, or none of that, or 8-year-old — I’m talking about convicted criminal aliens. That’s what I’m talking about. That was the number I asked him. At the time he goes, ‘Tony it’s a lot,’” Gonzales informed The Hill.
The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) publishes huge quantities of information, each on immigration and on border enforcement, although some databases are saved beneath wraps.
“There has been extensive effort in the transparency community to get the U.S. government to produce more data about its operations, and the amount of information available about the immigration enforcement system today is unprecedented. Much of this is data that the U.S. government has had for generations but has not shared with the general public,” mentioned Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow on the American Immigration Council.
Lechleitner opened up the books and despatched Gonzales a letter with ICE felony detainee numbers and the non-detained docket, an accounting of overseas nationals convicted of felony prices or pending felony prices who’re recognized to be or have been in the US and who are usually not in ICE detention.
The uncooked numbers shocked Gonzales, who made the letter public.
ICE’s non-detained docket reviews greater than 600,000 alleged or convicted foreign-national criminals doubtless in the US and never in ICE detention, together with about 13,000 convicted murderers.
Former President Trump rapidly grasped on that determine, claiming his election rival Vice President Harris was chargeable for releasing 13,000 murderers onto the streets.
“In total during her term, it’s not even believable, she let in 13,099 convicted murderers. Some of them had murdered 10 people, some murdered seven, one murdered six. I’m looking at these. These are stone-cold killers, and they let in people that are worse than any criminal we have,” Trump mentioned at a rally in Erie, Pa., final weekend.
Trump’s illustration of the numbers was unsuitable: The overwhelming majority of the non-detained docket has constructed up over a long time, and it contains any deportable overseas nationwide within the felony justice system not in ICE custody, together with criminals in jails and prisons.
“It’s not just disingenuous. It’s an intentional misuse of information in order to further the dehumanization that we’ve seen cause so much harm and violence over the past few weeks. So it’s not accidental,” mentioned Heidi Altman, coverage director on the Nationwide Immigrant Justice Middle.
So who’s on the docket? It’s difficult, say consultants.
“We can’t know for certain, because they haven’t given out that information, but someone like [Joaquín] Chapo Guzman, so long as he had had an interaction with ICE while in the United States, which seems likely, he will probably be on ICE’s non-detained docket, because he is a non-citizen who is removable, who is not detained by ICE,” mentioned Reichlin-Melnick.
“Zacarias Moussaoui, sometimes called the 20th [9/11] hijacker, who’s been in federal detention since 2001 and is currently serving a life sentence at ADX Florence, the supermax prison in Colorado. He’s probably on ICE’s non-detained docket. Richard Reed, the British shoe bomber, the guy responsible for us having to take our shoes off at TSA. He is a removable non-citizen who is also serving a life sentence in Colorado. He also is probably on ICE’s non detained docket as a British citizen.”
The docket can also be more likely to embrace individuals who have left the US, and it contains any overseas nationals with a document, together with these launched after serving felony sentences, who both interacted with ICE or left the nation and returned.
Not all crimes render all overseas nationals deportable, however in some instances decades-old citations or minor convictions have landed unsuspecting everlasting residents in scorching water with ICE — these everlasting residents would rely towards the docket shared in Lechleitner’s letter.
“They just didn’t give any sense of time frame here. And I think that is a little bit suspect, knowing full well how this would play in our polarized media climate, that they would just put that out without any context. It’s just troubling,” mentioned Adam Isaacson, director for protection oversight on the Washington Workplace on Latin America.
Within the aftermath of Gonzales’s publication of the letter, DHS issued an announcement delineating a few of that context.
“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,” mentioned Luis Miranda, a DHS spokesperson.
Gonzales expressed frustration on the statistical debate, saying as a substitute his intent was to shine a lightweight on a public security problem.
“The reality is that number is somewhere in between zero and 13,199, right? I don’t know what that number is, but I guarantee you, the administration does know. Instead of saying the number is zero, once again, why can’t we just talk — or don’t even talk about the number, why don’t you just talk about what you’re doing in order to keep Americans safe?” he mentioned.
That method has up to now infuriated border consultants and immigration advocates, because it units an unreachable aim for regulation enforcement.
“What they’re gonna say is, you’re gonna start hearing this rhetoric: ‘If there’s one, it’s too many.’ It’s absurd from the policy perspective. There is no other public safety issue where the expectation is zero,” mentioned Mike Madrid, a GOP advisor and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Mission.
And, not like Gonzales, who says he’s “been singed” at instances for bucking the social gathering line, many Republicans are working with the 13,000 quantity.
“They’re not trying to have an honest debate. They just want the debate about the issue, because they’re so far ahead in confidence and trust with the public. It’s why JD Vance said it doesn’t matter whether [they are] telling the truth or not about eating pets. ‘As long as we’re talking about the issue, we’re winning.’ They’re right,” mentioned Madrid.
