Trump makes misleading claims about migrants with criminal records

Newly released numbers on criminally convicted migrants are being used to attack Democrats over border policies under Presidents Biden and Kamala Harris.

Donald Trump has used the numbers to claim that “during their three and a half years in office as border czar, 13,000 convicted murderers entered our country” and that they were allowed to “roam openly through our country.”

But both claims are misleading.

New figures released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show that about 13,000 non-citizens convicted of murder were listed on their records and not in custody.

However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, said the numbers cover a period of many years and include migrants who entered the US under the Trump presidency and previous administrations.

It also said those on the list may not be in ICE custody but may be detained or in prison under the supervision of other agencies.

The numbers have been published in a letter from ICE to Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales, who requested it.

They show that as of July 2024, there were 425,431 non-citizens with criminal convictions in ICE’s Non-Detained Docket – a database of people facing deportation proceedings but not in ICE custody.

Of that:

• 13,099 were convicted of murder
• 15,811 were convicted of sexual assault
• 62,231 were convicted of assault

However, a DHS statement said the data had been “misinterpreted.”

“This includes many who are subject to the jurisdiction of, or currently in custody of, federal, state, or local law enforcement,” DHS said.

Just because they aren’t being held by ICE doesn’t mean they’re all “moving around freely,” as Trump claims.

“Zacarias Moussaoui, for example, who is in a maximum security prison in Colorado for his role in the September 11 attacks, is not currently being detained by ICE and therefore will likely be on this list,” says Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration enforcement expert at the American Immigration Council.

BBC Verify asked DHS how many are detained by other agencies.

Trump said the 13,000 people convicted of murder entered the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration, but ICE figures do not indicate when those people came to America.

The DHS said: “The data goes back decades; they include individuals who have entered the country in the last 40 years or more, with the vast majority of custody decisions made long before that.” [Biden-Harris] Administration.”

The list of non-detainees is not published routinely and is only released upon request in certain circumstances – so we do not have exact figures for each administration.

The numbers were before published in June 2021five months into the Biden presidency, which showed there were 405,431 convicted criminals on the list at that point.

Before that official report published August 2016near the end of Barack Obama’s presidency, showed 368,574.

So within five years, including Trump’s term, the list grew by almost 37,000.

“This data shows that significant numbers of refugees would have been added to the list during previous administrations, and the list has grown under multiple administrations, including Trump’s,” said Michelle Mittelstadt of the Migration Policy Institute.

The total number of noncitizens on the list has increased in recent years due to high immigration rates under President Biden.

“Although the number of people on the non-incarcerated list has increased significantly under the Biden administration, the number of people on the list as convicted felons has not increased,” Mr. Reichlin-Melnick says.

In the letter, ICE does not say how many of the noncitizens with criminal convictions on its list are illegal immigrants and how many, for example, entered the U.S. with a green card.

BBC Verify has asked for a breakdown.

According to experts, one of the reasons for the high overall numbers is, among other things, the problems with deporting certain non-citizens who have committed crimes.

“The U.S. government cannot put a person on a commercial or government flight to return them to their country of citizenship without that country’s consent,” says Michelle Mittelstadt.

“For example, because the United States has very limited diplomatic relations with Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, deportation flights and returns to these countries are rare.”

There are federal laws that say people can only be held in custody for six months before the U.S. government has to prove they pose a danger to the community.

The UN Convention Against Torture allows the deportation of some immigrants, even those convicted of serious crimes, to be deferred if judges conclude they are likely to be tortured or persecuted in their home countries.

DHS says it has deported over 180,000 non-citizens with criminal convictions since January 2021.