Trump points to new figures on migrants with criminal pasts. Here’s what they show

WASHINGTON— Republicans are pointing to newly released immigration enforcement data to bolster their argument that the Biden administration is releasing migrants into the U.S. who have committed serious crimes. However, the numbers were misinterpreted without significant context.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement released data to Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales in response to a request he made for information about people under ICE custody who have either been convicted of crimes or are being prosecuted. The Texas District of Gonzales covers an 800-mile stretch of the Mexican border.

Gonzales released the numbers online and they immediately became a flashpoint in the presidential campaign between former President Donald Trump, who has promised mass deportations, and Vice President Kamala Harris. Immigration — and the Biden administration’s record on border security — has become a central issue in the election.

Here’s a look at the data and what it shows and what it doesn’t:

As of July 21, ICE reported that 662,556 people under its authority had either been convicted of crimes or were being prosecuted. Nearly 15,000 were in custody, but the vast majority – 647,572 – were not.

The numbers of people not arrested by ICE included people convicted of serious crimes: 13,099 for murder, 15,811 for sexual assault, 13,423 for weapons offenses and 2,663 for stolen vehicles. The largest single category was traffic offenses with 77,074, followed by assault with 62,231 and dangerous drugs with 56,533.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, later clarified that the numbers span decades and those not in its custody may be being held by a state or local agency. For example, someone in state prison for murder could be considered a criminal who is not in ICE custody. They are not being held by federal immigration authorities, but are being detained – a distinction ICE did not make in its report to Gonzales.

Millions of people are on ICE’s “non-detained list,” or people who are under the agency’s supervision and not in its custody. Many are awaiting the outcome of their cases in immigration court, including some wearing monitoring devices. Others were released after serving their sentences because their countries did not want to take them back.

Republicans pointed to the data as evidence that the Biden administration is allowing immigrants with criminal records into the country and is not doing enough to kick out those who commit crimes during their stay.

“The truth is clear – illegal immigrants with criminal records are coming into our country. “The data released by ICE is beyond troubling and should be a wake-up call for the Biden-Harris administration and cities across the country that are hiding behind protective measures,” Gonzales said in a news release, citing pledges from local officials of their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Trump, who has repeatedly depicted that immigrants bring lawlessness and crime to America, tweeted several screenshots of the data with the words: “13,000 CROSSED THE BORDER WITH MURDER CONVICTIONS.”

He also claimed that the numbers were consistent with Biden and Harris’ time in office.

The data is being misinterpreted, Homeland Security said in a statement Sunday.

“The data goes back decades; This includes individuals who have entered the country in the last 40 years or more and whose custody decisions were largely made long before this administration,” the agency said. “This includes many who are under the jurisdiction of, or are currently in custody of, federal, state or local law enforcement agencies.”

The department also highlighted what it has done to deport those who do not have the right to remain in America, saying it deported or sent back more than 700,000 people last year, which it said was the highest number since 2010. Homeland Security said it has deported 180,000 people with criminal convictions since President Joe Biden took office.

The data not only lists people who entered the country during the Biden administration, but also includes people going back decades and who came during previous administrations, said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization Service, ICE’s predecessor .

They are accused or convicted of committing crimes in America rather than committing crimes in other countries and then entering the U.S., said Meissner, who is now director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.

“This does not depend on what the Biden administration has done,” she said. “That certainly includes the Biden years, but that is an accumulation of many years, certainly going back to at least 2010, 2011, 2012.”

A 2017 report from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general said that as of August 2016, ICE had approximately 368,574 non-detained individuals on its list who were convicted felons. As of June 2021, that number stood at 405,786.

ICE has limited resources. The number of people she cares for has skyrocketed, but the number of staff has not. As the agency noted in a 2023 annual report, it often has to send employees to the border to help, keeping them away from their normal duties.

The number of people under ICE surveillance but not in its custody has increased from 3.3 million just before Biden took office to just over 7 million last spring.

“The simple answer is that as a system we have not allocated enough resources to the parts of the government that are responsible for monitoring and ultimately deporting deportable individuals,” Meissner said.

ICE also has logistical and legal limits on who it can detain. The budget allows the agency to accommodate 41,500 people at a time. John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE director from 2013 to 2014 under then-President Barack Obama, said arresting people accused or convicted of the most serious crimes is always a top priority.

But once someone has a final deportation order — meaning a court has determined they don’t have the right to remain in the country — they can’t be held in custody forever while ICE determines how to bring them home. A 2001 Supreme Court ruling essentially prevented ICE from detaining these people for longer than six months if there was no reasonable chance they could be returned.

Not every country is ready to take back its citizens, said Sandweg.

He said he suspects that a large number of people convicted of murder but not held by ICE are people who have been deported but the agency cannot deport them because their home country won’t take them back.

“It’s a very common scenario. Even in the countries that take people back, they can be very selective about who they take back,” he said.

The U.S. could also face problems deporting people to countries with which it has lukewarm relations.

Homeland Security did not respond to questions about how many countries would not take back their citizens. The 2017 watchdog report puts the number at 23 countries, plus another 62 that were cooperative but experienced delays in obtaining things like passports or travel documents.