According to data provided by ICE to Congress earlier this week, more than 13,000 immigrants — in the United States or abroad — are living freely in the United States outside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.
Immigrants are part of ICE’s “nondetained” docket, meaning the agency has some information about immigrants who have pending immigration cases in the U.S., but are not currently in custody because they are not a priority for detention or because of ICE. Can’t find them.
Acting ICE Director PJ Lechleitner sent the data collected through July 21 as part of a March request from Congressman Tony Gonzalez, Republican of Texas.
It is unclear when the first of the 13,000 immigrants entered the United States Two law enforcement officials familiar with the data told NBC News that many of ICE’s non-detained immigrants, including serious criminals, entered the United States under previous administrations, including former President Donald Trump.
During a campaign stop in Michigan on Friday, Trump used the data to criticize Vice President Kamala Harris for her current immigration policies.
“I can finally look at them and say ‘I told you so’ to fake news,” Trump He said. “These are hardened, hardened, deadly criminals who roam free in our country.”
The White House has yet to comment on the data. An official told NBC News that the release of the data came as a surprise to the White House.
Two law enforcement officials said 13,099 immigrants convicted of murder living in the U.S. never had contact with ICE. Some may have crossed the border and then been released because Border Patrol agents did not have information about their criminal history. In many cases, a person’s criminal conviction is not reported to the United States until they enter the country.
In other cases, as is the policy in many sanctuary cities, immigrants convicted of crimes can be released by state and local authorities after serving their time without being notified by ICE. ICE must then locate the offender after release in order to incarcerate and deport them.
Two law enforcement officials say ICE prioritizes arresting immigrants who have committed serious crimes, such as murder.
But the agency’s limited resources limit how many people they can track down and arrest. More than 7.5 million immigrants are currently on ICE’s “nondetained” docket, meaning they have pending immigration cases but are not currently in custody.
Lechleitner told NBC News that more local jurisdictions are cooperating and starting to rethink their sanctuary policies in light of the increased focus on immigrant crime.
NBC News earlier this year worked with ICE agents in Maryland to arrest a man convicted of murder in Colombia and a man convicted of attempted murder in El Salvador.
Agents explained that tracking criminals who live at large requires a lot of manpower, from locating them to arresting them.
