By Steve Neavling
More than 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide — either in the U.S. or abroad — are currently living outside of ICE detention, according to data ICE provided to Congress earlier this week, NBC News reports.
These immigrants are part of ICE’s “non-detained” docket. This means the agency has some information about them and they have pending immigration cases, but they are not detained. Reasons for this include low priority for detention, serving time in jail or prison for their crimes, or ICE being unable to locate them, according to three law enforcement officials.
Two officials noted that ICE is not always aware of how many of these immigrants are incarcerated, as state and local law enforcement agencies do not consistently share this data with the federal government.
The data, collected as of July 21, was shared by Acting ICE Director P.J. Lechleitner as part of a request made in March by Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that the data has been misinterpreted, noting that it spans over four decades, long before the Biden administration took office.
It remains unclear when the first of the 13,000 individuals crossed into the U.S. Two law enforcement officials familiar with the data told NBC News that many of these migrants, including those with serious criminal records, entered the U.S. during previous administrations, including that of former President Donald Trump.
While a high number of non-detained immigrants with criminal convictions is not new, the numbers have increased in recent years.
A 2016 report from the DHS Inspector General found that 368,000 criminal immigrants were not detained by ICE at the time. According to ICE’s fiscal year 2023 budget justification, as of June 5, 2021, there were 405,786 convicted criminal immigrants on the non-detained docket, just under five months after Trump left office. This suggests that many of these immigrants crossed into the country during the Trump administration. By July of this year, the data shared with Gonzales showed that over 435,719 convicted criminal immigrants were on ICE’s non-detained docket.
In a statement to NBC News, a DHS spokesperson said, “The data in this letter is being misinterpreted. The data goes back decades; it includes people 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 White House has not yet commented on the data. One official told NBC News that the release of the information came as a surprise to the administration.
The 13,099 immigrants convicted of homicide living in the U.S. may have never had any contact with ICE, according to two law enforcement officials. Some may have crossed the border and been released because Border Patrol did not have information on their criminal history. In many cases, the U.S. is not notified of a criminal conviction until after the person has entered the country.
Additionally, migrants convicted of crimes may be released by state and local officials after serving their time, without ICE being notified, a common occurrence in sanctuary cities. ICE then has to locate and detain these individuals for deportation.
The two law enforcement officials emphasized that ICE prioritizes arresting migrants convicted of serious crimes, such as homicide, but the agency’s limited resources hinder how many individuals they can track down and arrest. Currently, there are more than 7.5 million immigrants on ICE’s “non-detained” docket, meaning they have pending immigration cases but are not currently in detention.
