Recently released figures on migrants with criminal convictions are being used to criticize border policies under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Former President Donald Trump claims that “13,000 convicted murderers entered our country during [Harris’s] three-and-a-half-year period as Border Czar” and alleges they were allowed to “openly roam our country.” However, these statements are misleading.
The data, provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), does show approximately 13,000 non-citizens with homicide convictions on record. However, many of these individuals were not in ICE custody. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, clarified that these figures span several decades and include migrants who entered the U.S. under previous administrations, including Trump’s presidency.
DHS also explained that individuals on this list may not be detained by ICE but could be held by other federal, state, or local agencies.
The data was shared by ICE in a letter to Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales, who requested the information. As of July 2024, there were 425,431 non-citizens with criminal convictions on ICE’s “non-detained docket”—a database of individuals in deportation proceedings who are not in ICE custody.
A DHS statement emphasized that the figures have been “misinterpreted.” DHS noted that many of these individuals are either under the jurisdiction of or currently detained by other law enforcement agencies, meaning they are not necessarily “roaming freely,” as Trump suggested.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration enforcement expert with the American Immigration Council, explained that individuals like Zacarias Moussaoui, a maximum-security prisoner in Colorado for his involvement in the 9/11 attacks, would be listed even though they are not in ICE custody.
BBC Verify has requested further clarification from DHS on how many of these individuals are detained by other agencies.
Trump also claimed that the 13,000 individuals convicted of homicide entered the U.S. during the Biden-Harris administration. However, the ICE data does not indicate when these individuals first entered the U.S. DHS clarified that the data spans several decades, including individuals who entered over the last 40 years, most of whom were processed before the current administration.
The “non-detained docket” data is not routinely published and is released only upon request, so exact numbers from each administration are not consistently available. However, data from June 2021, five months into Biden’s presidency, showed 405,431 convicted criminals on the non-detained list. An earlier report from August 2016, towards the end of President Barack Obama’s term, reported 368,574.
In recent years, the total number of non-citizens on the list has grown, partially due to an increase in immigration under President Biden. According to Reichlin-Melnick, while the overall non-detained docket has expanded, the number of convicted criminals on the list has not increased at the same rate.
ICE did not provide specific details on how many of the non-citizens with criminal convictions on the list are undocumented or entered legally with visas or green cards.
Michelle Mittelstadt of the Migration Policy Institute noted, “This data indicates a significant number of individuals were added to the list during prior administrations. The docket has grown across multiple administrations, including the Trump era.”
This information sheds light on the complexity of the data and the factors contributing to the increase in non-detained individuals with criminal convictions, underscoring the nuanced nature of immigration policy and enforcement over multiple administrations.
