WASHINGTON — Federal numbers released Friday show that more than 15,000 illegal immigrants currently living in the US are convicted or accused of homicide — with the eye-popping figure made public as Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to the southern border to address her perceived weakness on the issue.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided the data to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who published it as Air Force Two flew to southern Arizona for the Democratic presidential nominee’s second border trip since becoming President Biden’s point person on reducing illegal immigration.
“As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket —13,099 criminally convicted MURDERS!” tweeted Gonzales, a critic of Harris’ performance who represents more than 800 miles of territory along the US-Mexico border.
“Americans deserve to be SAFE in our own communities.”
ICE provided the data to Gonzales on Wednesday and did not indicate how many of the accused and convicted criminals crossed into the US during Harris’ tenure as the so-called “border czar,” during which the US notched record-high illegal crossings for three consecutive years.
Under Biden and Harris, a large share of illegal immigrants have been released into the US to await badly backlogged asylum proceedings — after the administration repudiated former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy for those claiming persecution in their homelands.
ICE currently is detaining 277 migrants who have been convicted of homicide and 51 who face such charges, the agency said.
Federal authorities are aware of but not currently detaining 13,099 illegal immigrants living in the US who have been convicted of homicide and 1,845 who are accused of it, according to the data set.
The document doesn’t make clear how many of the murderers are incarcerated by state or local officials.
Other well-represented crimes include sexual assault — with 523 convicted or suspected rapists in ICE custody and 20,061 not — and assault, with more than 100,000 convicted or accused of that crime not in ICE custody.
ICE indicated that the criminal cohort includes many residents of “sanctuary” states and cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities — a list that includes Harris’ home state of California, Illinois and New York.
“ICE recognizes that some jurisdictions are concerned that cooperating with federal immigration officials will erode trust with immigrant communities and make it harder for local law enforcement to serve those populations,” ICE acting director Patrick Lechleitner wrote to Gonzales.
“However, ‘sanctuary’ policies can end up shielding dangerous criminals, who often victimize those same communities.”
The data prompted an outpouring of criticism of Harris, who is making the border trip as polls show immigration, as well as the economy, as key weaknesses for her in a close contest against Trump, the Republican nominee.
“The Biden/Harris administration has opened the border, closed ICE detention centers, slowed deportations, and released murderers back to the street instead of removing them,” tweeted former ICE field office director John Fabbricatore, the Republican candidate challenging Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.).
Trump wrote on social media: “Nobody who has allowed this to happen to our Country is fit to be President of the United States! Bad timing for her to show up to the Border today, after not going for four years. Why didn’t she release these numbers earlier?”
Critics of Biden and Harris, including Trump, have highlighted high-profile examples of murders allegedly committed by migrants, including the February slaying of nursing student Laken Riley, 22, on the University of Georgia’s campus.
The Post contacted ICE to confirm the accuracy of the data given Gonzales.
US Customs and Border Protection encounters with migrants along the US-Mexico border hit all-time record highs in each of the first three years of Harris’ tenure in charge of stemming the crisis — reaching nearly 2.5 million in fiscal 2023, which ended last Sept. 30.
Recent monthly apprehensions have trended downward since Biden in June issued an order allowing for caps on the processing of illegal entrants.
