As a result of her administration’s policies like “Catch and Release,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports that it has (as of July 2024) released over 640,000 illegal aliens with criminal histories. This number includes over 425,000 convicted criminals and 222,000 with pending criminal charges.
Of the number of convicted criminals released, 13,099 were convicted of homicide, 62,231 of assault, 15,811 of sexual assault, and 14,301 of burglary. Shocked? What’s more, there is no publicly available data describing their current custodial status or whereabouts.
ICE uses custody “detainers” to identify and remove criminal illegal aliens who are in local, state or federal custody. However, ICE also maintains a “non-detained” docket which describes the aliens released into the U.S. under a “case-management” process of (hopeful) compliance while their removal processes are pending. Because of an overwhelming workload on border security enforcement, who are now vastly undermanned compared to the number of immigrants flooding U.S. borders, the ICE non-detained docket has more than doubled since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office in 2021.
At that time, the non-detained docket had only about 3.7 million cases; it now includes about 7.5 million. Contrast that with ICE’s current detention capacity at only 41,500 beds for Fiscal Year 2024, and only 34,000 in FY 2023.
ICE cites sanctuary city policies as another barrier to detention. ICE obviously relies on the cooperation of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to gain custody of an illegal alien. However, it cites that 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.” Ironically, these criminals often turn around and commit crimes in those same communities.
At the same time, crime in the United States has hit record levels. Recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) uncovered a significant increase in violent crime under the Biden-Harris administration as compared to when former President Donald Trump left office.
According to the NCVS survey, total violent crime increased by 41% (2023) in the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration (since 2020, the last year of the Trump administration). It is “by far the largest percentage increase over any three-year period on record, more than doubling the previous record.” Violent crime actually fell 17% under the Trump administration, according to the Crime Prevention Research Center.
Contrary to mainstream media reports, the NCVS survey gives a more accurate number of total crimes committed in the U.S. as compared to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), the report referred to by moderator David Muir, during the Trump-Harris debate on September 10th 2024, in his attempt to prove declining U.S. crime rates under the Biden-Harris administration.
Here's why: the UCR measures the numbers of crimes reported to police each year, while the NCVS survey actually reports the number of people who have been victims of crime. The UCR is flawed as an indicator of actual crime because crime victims only report about 40% of violent crime and 30% of property crime to police.
In fact, the less faith that crime victims have that law enforcement can be trusted and criminals will be caught and punished, the less likely they are to report crime to the police. Ironically, the UCR shows that Americans are reporting less crime during the Biden administration, during a time of actual rising crime as reported by the NCVS survey, suggesting that crime victims have less faith today in America’s justice system under the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats’ “soft on crime” policies.
But is record-level crime under the Biden-Harris administration connected to the current mass illegal migration in the U.S.? Although U.S. crime statistics do not give researchers the information to determine how much illegal immigrants affect the rise of violent crime in the U.S., the answer is most likely yes. Besides the fact that over a half a million aliens with (known) criminal histories were released into the U.S. by ICE, European research shows a clear link between rising immigration in Europe and rising crime rates.
Has the U.S. ever had an administration that knowingly allowed mass illegal immigration with an increasing number of convicted burglars, rapists and murderers to walk U.S. streets? As Mark Green (R-TN), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee remarked: "DHS law enforcement has been directed to mass-release illegal aliens whom they know have criminal convictions or are facing charges for serious crimes … How many more Americans need to die or be victimized before this administration is forced to abide by the laws they swore to uphold? This is madness. It is something no civilized, well-functioning society should tolerate."
It is madness, indeed. God save this country from the administration that has tried to destroy it.
Shea Bradley-Farrell, Ph.D. is a strategist in national security and foreign policy in Washington, D.C. and president of Counterpoint Institute for Policy, Research and Education. Her latest book is Last Warning to the West. Follow her at counterpointinstititute.org or on “X” @DrShea_DC and @CounterpointDC.
