Why ICE Is Babysitting — but Not Removing — 425,431 Convicted Criminals
Congress wants them to leave, but the administration isn’t forcing them to go
By Andrew R. Arthur on September 30, 2024
On September 25, Patrick J. Lechleitner — ICE’s deputy director and de facto acting head — sent a bombshell letter to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) and 22 other House members revealing that 425,431 convicted criminals — including thousands of murderers and sex offenders — and 222,000-plus other aliens facing criminal charges are on the agency’s non-detained docket of removable aliens, known to the agency but at large in the United States. Here’s why ICE is babysitting but not removing them.
So Many Criminal Aliens. On March 13, Gonzales and other members sent a letter to President Biden and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, seeking information on the impact state and local sanctuary policies have had on ICE’s immigration enforcement efforts.
Key to the criminal alien disclosures in Lechleitner’s September 25 letter was the first question asked in that March letter:
ICE has reported more than 7 million cases on ERO’s docket as of Feb. 2024— a. How many of them are noncitizens who have been charged by a municipality? b. How many of them are noncitizens who have been convicted of a crime and released into communities? c. What is ERO’s current capacity for holding noncitizens in custody?
https://cis.org/Arthur/Why-ICE-Babysitting-Not-Removing-425431-Convicted-Criminals
