More than 13,000 non-citizens convicted of murder are currently in the United States, ICE confirmed in a September 25, 2024, letter to a U.S. Congressman.
The letter also reveals the scope of non-citizen criminality in the U.S., at least those people identified by ICE. According to ICE, as of July 21, 2024, “there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket which includes those detained by ICE and on the agency’s non-detained docket.”
Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges, he wrote. The report comes on the heels of Wisconsin Right Now’s new series, which is profiling a non-citizen accused of a serious crime in the battleground state every day until the election. Our first stories profiled an accused rapist, child molester, and attempted murderer.
The killers are just one category on the ICE list. ICE says in the letter that it has identified the following noncitizen criminals:
- More than 16,000 convicted rapists
- More than 2,500 kidnappers
- More than 10,000 robbers
- More than 64,000 convicted of assault
- More than 57,000 convicted of “dangerous drugs”
This border crisis is worse than people realize. 😳 https://t.co/QNx7IJsgG3
— Tony Gonzales (@TonyGonzales4TX) September 27, 2024
ICE’s letter was in response to a request for information from U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, which he sent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in March. The letter was signed by Patrick J. Lechleitner, deputy director and senior official performing the duties of the director for ICE.
“In recent years, however, as you know, some jurisdictions have reduced their cooperation with ICE, to include refusal to honor ICE detainer requests, even for noncitizens who have been convicted of serious felonies and pose an ongoing threat to public safety,” Lechleitner wrote.
ICE recognizes that “some jurisdictions are concerned that cooperating with federal immigration officials will erode trust with immigrant communities and make it harder for local law enforcement to serve those populations. However, ‘sanctuary’ policies can end up shielding dangerous criminals who often victimize those same communities,” he said (we would note that ICE lists Dane County as a “noncooperative” jurisdiction.)
DHS is working amid “challenges of operating within a broken immigration system and in the face of an enormous workload and consistently limited funding,” he wrote.
From mid-May 2023 through the end of July 2024 DHS removed or returned more than 893,600 individuals including more than 138,300 individuals in family units, he said, adding, “The majority of all individuals encountered at the Southwest Border over the past three years have been removed returned or expelled.”
Detention determinations are made using few guidelines, the letter says. “And ICE is bound by statutory requirements not to release certain noncitizens from ICE custody during the pendency of removal proceedings and notes that most noncitizens who are convicted of homicide are typically not eligible for release from ICE custody,” he wrote.
Although the letter doesn’t explain this, it’s likely that many if not most of the convicted murderers are, while not detained by ICE, serving sentences in state prisons.
“ICE officers may use their discretion in making custody determinations and release noncitizens with conditions, taking into account individual case circumstances, primarily considering the risk of flight, national security threat, and threat to public safety” as well as whether the noncitizen has a serious medical condition, is the primary caregiver of minor children and “humanitarian” considerations, he wrote.
ICE has 41,500 beds, he wrote.
Asked about the number of declined detainers since 2021, from Oct. 1, 2020, through July 22, 2024, ICE “listed 24,796 detainers. Of those 23,591 were declined by state and local law enforcement agencies,” he wrote. “1,205 were lifted due to insufficent notice to ICE.”
ICE issued 2,897 that were declined by state and local law enforcement agencies but the detainer had a subsequent apprehension, he added.
