Fox News' reporter Bill Melugin calls the figures "jaw dropping" and that could be an understatement. According to information sent in a letter by the head of ICE there are nearly half a million migrants currently roaming the US who have been convicted of crimes, many of them violent crimes up to and including murder.

The agency provided data to Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, about national data for illegal immigrants with criminal charges or convictions. The data, as of July 2024, is broken down by those in detention, and those who are not in detention -- known as the non-detained docket.  The non-detained docket includes illegal immigrants who have final orders of removal or are going through removal proceedings but are not detained in ICE custody. There are currently more than 7 million people on that docket.

The data says that, among those not in detention, there are 425,431 convicted criminals and 222,141 with pending criminal charges.

In short, these are migrants that ICE is trying to remove but who, at least for now, are still not in ICE custody.

Those include 62,231 convicted of assault, 14,301 convicted of burglary, 56,533 with drug convictions and 13,099 convicted of homicide. An additional 2,521 have kidnapping convictions and 15,811 have sexual assault convictions...

"As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket—13,099 criminally convicted MURDERS!" Gonzales said in a statement. "Americans deserve to be SAFE in our own communities."

The data doesn't say where the convictions took place so it's not clear how many of these crimes were committed here in the US as opposed to somewhere else, but in the case of crimes like murder and sexual assault, why would it matter? We shouldn't be allowing anyone with a violent crime conviction into the US and anyone who commits a violent crime here ought to be deported as soon as possible.

The full letter from ICE is included in the Fox News report and has numbers for many other serious crimes, both convictions and pending cases.

ICE also included a statement saying some of the difficulty in rounding up these convicted criminals stems from sanctuary cities who refuse to hold them in jail for ICE to pick them up. Unconnected to this letter, ICE put out a press release yesterday about one particular criminal alien in Virginia. His name is Yohandri Roger Mosquera-Rosas and he crossed the border in October 2022. Since then he has been on quite a crime spree.

Fairfax County Police arrested Mosquera Jan. 1, 2023, and charged him with malicious wounding, reckless handling of a firearm, leaving a firearm loaded — endangering a child less than 14 years of age, and using a firearm in commission of a felony. Later that day, ERO lodged an immigration detainer against Mosquera with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. However, the detention center refused to honor ERO’s immigration detainer and released Mosquera from custody on an unknown date.

Fairfax County Police again arrested Mosquera June 22, 2023, and charged him with using a firearm in commission of a felony. Later that day, ERO Washington, D.C. contacted the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center to lodge an immigration detainer, but Mosquera had already been released from custody.

Fairfax County Police twice arrested Mosquera on Feb. 18 and again on May 2 and charged him with driving while intoxicated and hit and run with property damage. After each arrest, ERO lodged immigration detainers against Mosquera with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. On both occasions, however, the detention center refused to honor ERO’s immigration detainers and released Mosquera from custody without notification to ERO Washington, D.C.

Mosquera was finally picked up by ICE on Sep. 12 in Springfield, VA. I'm familiar with all of the arguments made for sanctuary cities but I can't understand why anyone who lives in this part of Virginia would want Mosquera living there given his string of crimes over just two years in the country. Protecting violent criminals from deportation seems like a really stupid approach for any city or county to take. Anyway, these numbers are something to keep in mind as Kamala Harris heads to the border today to try to make excuses for her administration's dismal record.

Here's Bill Melugin reporting the numbers for Fox News.

“It’s a jaw dropper to say the least” — Fox’s @BillMelugin_ on new ICE data showing huge number of border migrants with convictions pic.twitter.com/mxe2ZG2p4t

— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) September 27, 2024