• NBC More than 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide are living in the

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    from https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/13000-immigrants-convicted-homicide-living-freely-us-ice-data-rcna173125

    More than 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide are living outside immigration detention in the U.S., ICE says
    Two law enforcement officials said many of those migrants crossed into
    the U.S. under previous administrations, and that the total includes
    people serving U.S. prison sentences.
    U.S. Customs And Border Protection Agent.
    A U.S. Border Patrol agent at the border in 2022 near Douglas, Ariz.John
    Moore / Getty Images file

    Sept. 28, 2024, 6:30 AM PDT / Updated Sept. 28, 2024, 12:50 PM PDT
    By Julia Ainsley, Laura Strickler and Gabe Gutierrez

    More than 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide — either in the United States or abroad — are living outside of Immigration and Customs
    Enforcement detention, according to data ICE provided to Congress
    earlier this week.

    The immigrants are part of ICE’s “non-detained” docket, meaning the agency has some information on the immigrants and they have pending
    immigration cases in the U.S., but they are not currently in detention
    either because they are not prioritized for detention, they are serving
    time in a jail or prison for their crimes, or because ICE cannot find
    them, three law enforcement officials said.

    Two of the officials said it is not known how many are incarcerated
    because ICE is not always privy to that data from state and local law enforcement agencies.

    Acting ICE Director P.J. Lechleitner sent the data, collected as of July
    21, as part of a request sent in March from Republican Rep. Tony
    Gonzales of Texas.

    A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said the data sent
    to Gonzales is being misinterpreted, and goes back four decades, long
    before the Biden administration.


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    It is not clear when the first migrant of the 13,000 crossed into the
    U.S. Two law enforcement officials familiar with the data told NBC News
    many of the migrants on ICE’s non-detained docket, including serious criminals, crossed into the U.S. under previous administrations,
    including that of former President Donald Trump.

    A high number of non-detained immigrants with criminal convictions is
    not new, though it has grown in recent years.

    A 2016 DHS Inspector General's report found there were 368,000 criminal immigrants who were not detained by ICE. According to ICE's fiscal year
    2023 budget justification, there were 405,786 convicted criminal
    immigrants on the non-detained docket as of June 5, 2021, just under
    five months after Trump left office, indicating many crossed during the
    Trump administration. As of July of this year, according to the data
    provided by ICE to Rep. Gonzales, over 435,719 convicted criminal
    immigrants were on ICE's non-detained docket.

    A DHS spokesman told NBC News in a statement: "The data in this letter
    is being misinterpreted. The data goes back decades; it includes people
    who entered the country over the past 40 year or more, the vast majority
    of whose custody determination was made long before this administration.
    It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction or currently
    incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement partners."

    During a campaign stop in Michigan on Friday, Trump used the data to
    criticize Vice President Kamala Harris for current immigration policies.

    “I can finally look at them and say ‘I told you so’ to the fake news,” Trump said. “These are hard, tough, vicious criminals that are free to
    roam in our country.”

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    The White House has yet to comment on the data. One official told NBC
    News the release of the data came as a surprise to the White House.

    The 13,099 immigrants convicted of homicide living in the U.S. may have
    never had contact with ICE, the two law enforcement officials said. Some
    may have crossed the border and then been released because Border Patrol
    lacks information on their criminal history. In many cases, the U.S. is
    not notified of someone’s criminal conviction until after they cross
    into the country.

    In other cases, migrants convicted of crimes may be released by state
    and local officials after they serve their time without ICE being
    notified, as is policy in many sanctuary cities. ICE then has to locate
    the person after release in order to detain and deport them.

    The two law enforcement officials said ICE prioritizes migrants who have
    been convicted of serious crimes, like homicide, for arrest.

    But the agency’s limited resources limit how many they can locate and
    arrest. There are currently more than 7.5 million immigrants on ICE’s “non-detained” docket, meaning they have pending immigration cases but
    are not currently in detention.

    Lechleitner told NBC News more local jurisdictions are cooperating and
    starting to rethink their sanctuary policies in light of increased
    attention on crimes committed by migrants.

    NBC News joined ICE agents in Maryland earlier this year when they
    arrested a man convicted of murder in Colombia and a man convicted of
    attempted murder in El Salvador.

    Agents explained that locating convicted criminals living at large takes
    an enormous amount of manpower, from locating them to the arrest.

    CLARIFICATION (Sept. 28, 2024, 10:00 p.m. ET): This story has been
    updated to provide additional context for the statistics that was
    provided by U.S. officials after publication. It now explains that many
    of the 13,000 migrants may have entered the U.S. decades ago, and also
    that some may be in jail or prison.


    Julia Ainsley
    Julia Ainsley is the homeland security correspondent for NBC News and
    covers the Department of Homeland Security for the NBC News
    Investigative Unit.

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