In campaign appearances over the weekend in the swing state of Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, falsely accused Vice President Kamala Harris of letting more than 13,000 “illegal immigrant murderers” into the United States.
It’s true that there were 13,099 noncitizens convicted of murder, as of July 21, who were not being detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But the “vast majority” of them entered the country prior to the Biden administration and had their custody status determined “long before this Administration,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement, noting that many were in prison. Also, the noncitizens include those who entered the country legally, such as green-card holders.
Trump and Vance distorted the contents of a Sept. 25 letter that Patrick Lechleitner, the acting director of ICE, sent to Rep. Tony Gonzales. The Republican congressman had requested the number of noncitizens who had committed a crime but were not in ICE custody — a list known as the agency’s non-detained docket.
Lechleitner’s response included a chart that showed there are 13,099 noncitizens convicted of murder who were not being detained by ICE. Homeland Security later clarified in its statement that “many” are in prisons, although it did not tell us how many are incarcerated when we inquired.
Gonzales posted Lechleitner’s letter to X on Sept. 27. The next day, Vance referenced the 13,099 murderers at a campaign event in Newtown, Pennsylvania, and Trump did the same in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. A day later, Trump repeated the claim in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Vance, Sept. 28: Do you know that there are 13,000 — I know some of you are nodding because some of you saw this — 13,000 illegal immigrant murderers in the United States of America right now. They’re in this country because Kamala Harris let them in this country.
Trump, Sept. 29: During her term, it’s not even believable, she let in 13,099 convicted murderers. Some of them had murdered 10 people, some murdered seven. One murdered six.
In its statement, the Department of Homeland Security said data in Lechleitner’s letter had been “misinterpreted.”
“The data goes back decades; it includes individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody determination was made long before this Administration,” the statement said. “It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction or currently incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement partners.”
Similarly, Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications for the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, told us that people have been on the non-detained docket “for decades.”
“There is a lot of confusion around the non-detained docket,” including “who is on it and how long they’ve been on it,” Mittelstadt said in an email. “This docket has grown under multiple administrations, including the Trump one. Significant numbers of people on the docket have been on it for decades.”
For example, the ICE acting director said in his letter that there are 425,431 convicted criminals on the agency’s non-detained docket as of July 21. But, as Mittelstadt noted, ICE reported in a budget document “that there were 405,786 convicted criminal noncitizens on the non-detained docket in June 2021 – so the vast majority would have gotten on during the prior administrations as the Biden administration by then was just five months old.” The number of people on the docket has increased by nearly 5% in about three years.
She also told us that “the non-detained docket includes not just unauthorized immigrants but green-card holders and noncitizens on long-term non-immigrant visas who have made themselves removable by virtue of a criminal conviction.”
The ICE letter to Gonzales did show that, as of July 21, there were an additional 1,845 noncitizens on the non-detained docket who face murder charges. But, again, we don’t know when those 1,845 people entered the United States, how many of them may have entered illegally and when they committed their alleged crimes. We also do not know if they are being held by other local, state or federal law enforcement agencies. A Homeland Security spokesperson did not respond when we asked for such information.
We asked the Trump campaign to respond to the evidence that contradicts its candidates’ claims that Harris let 13,099 “illegal immigrant murderers” into the United States. We also asked it to supply information about Trump’s claim that some of the 13,099 “had murdered 10 people, some murdered seven.” In response, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, said Trump “will begin the largest mass deportation in history on day one.”
Mittelstadt said some murderers and other criminals cannot be deported “because their country will not accept their return.” In addition, she said, a 2001 Supreme Court ruling generally bars ICE from detaining noncitizens for more than six months if they are unlikely to be deported. As a result, ICE says on its website that it “has been legally required to release thousands of noncitizens, including those with serious criminal convictions.”
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