Former President Donald Trump has recently made misleading claims about immigration and crime statistics in an effort to criticize Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump falsely asserted that the statistics referred to criminal offenders who entered the US solely during the Biden-Harris administration. In reality, the figures span several decades, including the time Trump was president. Additionally, Trump wrongly suggested that these individuals are freely living in the US, when many are currently serving criminal sentences in jails or prisons.
In a post made on Friday, the same day Harris visited the US southern border, Trump claimed, “Kamala should immediately cancel her News Conference because it was just revealed that 13,000 convicted murderers entered our Country during her three and a half year period as Border Czar.” He further escalated his claims in subsequent posts, alleging that nearly 14,000 convicted murderers were roaming the country freely due to Harris’ actions, implying they were a current threat.
Factual Inaccuracies in Trump’s Statements
Trump’s claims are misleading in two key ways. First, the statistics he referenced are not limited to people who entered during the Biden-Harris administration. The data involves noncitizens who arrived in the US over several decades, including during Trump’s presidency. These individuals were convicted of crimes in the US, some of whom have been on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) “non-detained docket” for many years. Many remain on the list because their home countries refuse to accept their deportation. Second, some of the people on this list are serving time in jails and prisons, contradicting Trump’s claim that they are living freely in the US.
The new statistics, which were released by ICE in a letter to a Republican congressman, reveal that there were 425,431 convicted criminals on the non-detained docket as of July 21, 2024, including 13,099 individuals with homicide convictions. These numbers have been used by Trump, along with other Republican lawmakers, to argue that Harris mismanaged immigration policy. However, these statistics are not exclusive to the current administration, and Harris was never designated as the “border czar.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security stated that the data has been misinterpreted. It spans multiple decades and includes individuals whose custody determination was made long before the current administration took office. Additionally, many of these individuals are currently incarcerated or under federal, state, or local law enforcement jurisdiction.
Broader Context of the Non-Detained Docket
While it is unclear how many of the 13,099 individuals with homicide convictions are currently incarcerated, former acting ICE director John Sandweg clarified that it is false to suggest all of these individuals entered the US during Harris’ time as vice president. According to Sandweg, many of these individuals have likely been on the list for decades, with the US unable to deport them due to a lack of cooperation from their home countries.
A 2001 Supreme Court ruling prohibits the US from indefinitely detaining individuals after they have served their sentences if their home countries will not accept their deportation. Therefore, once an individual has completed their sentence, they may be released in the US after a period in immigration detention, but they are often subject to monitoring or check-ins with ICE.
Sandweg emphasized that ICE does not take the release of convicted criminals lightly, noting that the agency prefers not to release individuals convicted of homicide. However, legal constraints prevent indefinite detention when deportation is not possible.
A History of Criminals on the Non-Detained Docket
The non-detained docket is not a new development under the Biden-Harris administration. In fact, during the Trump presidency, hundreds of thousands of individuals with criminal convictions were on this list. A federal report from August 2016, just before Trump took office, indicated that there were 368,574 convicted criminals on the non-detained docket. By June 2021, less than five months into the Biden-Harris administration, this number had increased to 405,786. As of July 2024, the total stood at 425,431.
These figures reveal a 10% increase in the number of convicted criminals on the non-detained docket from 2016 to 2021, encompassing both the final months of the Obama administration and the entirety of Trump’s presidency. There was an additional 5% increase during the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration.
While public statistics on how many of these individuals had homicide convictions during Trump’s presidency are unavailable, it is clear that the non-detained docket grew under his administration. As Sandweg noted, Trump faced similar challenges as previous presidents with uncooperative foreign governments refusing deportations.
The non-detained docket includes individuals convicted of a wide range of offenses, from serious crimes like homicide and sexual assault to minor offenses like traffic violations and gambling. Traffic offenses were the most common conviction category on the docket in July 2024, with 77,074 individuals listed.
ICE and Immigration Challenges
Although the total number of people on the non-detained docket has increased during the Biden-Harris administration, Trump’s portrayal of Harris as solely responsible for the rise in violent offenders is inaccurate. ICE has reported that the docket grew from 3.3 million in the 2020 fiscal year, the last year of Trump’s presidency, to 6.2 million by the 2023 fiscal year. Critics of Harris are justified in pointing out this increase, but Trump’s attacks misrepresent the broader context of the issue.
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