Migrants crossing border

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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Right-wing media are misrepresenting ICE data to fearmonger about supposed immigrant criminals

Written by Chloe Simon & Charis Hoard

Published

Update (10/1/24): The piece has been updated with additional information.

Right-wing media are misrepresenting data about noncitizens with criminal histories to falsely claim President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris have allowed for “thousands of illegals” who are “murderers” and “rapists” to come in through their “open border” or to fearmonger that high numbers of criminals are “roaming free in the U.S.”

On September 27, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) posted on X a portion of a letter he had received from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cataloging the number of “noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket.” 

The Department of Homeland Security and other media outlets have explained that the data goes back “40 years” and includes noncitizens who are currently incarcerated and those who are here legally and have served their sentences. 

Yet right-wing media and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump flew into a frenzy, claiming that Biden and Harris’ administration is allowing “illegals,” some of whom were “murderers” and “rapists” in their home countries, “loose into” the United States.

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  • The Department of Homeland Security clarified that the data in the letter Gonzales shared is being “misinterpreted”

    • Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) shared a letter from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on X, writing that as of late July, there were “13,099 criminally convicted MURDER[ER]S” among the noncitizens on “ICE’s national docket.” The whole post read: “As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket—13,099 criminally convicted MURDERS! Americans deserve to be SAFE in our own communities.” He included a letter from ICE Director Alejandro Mayorkas, which stated that as of mid-July, “there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detailed by ICE, and on the agency’s non-detained docket. Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges.” [Twitter/X, 9/27/24]
    • Trump has posted about the letter several times since then, claiming that Harris has “allowed almost 14,000 MURDERERS to freely and openly roam our Country.” [CNN.com, 9/29/24]
    • The letter referred to “noncitizens” on “ICE’s national docket,” meaning the data includes undocumented migrants and also those who are here legally. American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick explained that some of the noncitizens “on this ‘docket’ will have likely been in the US since the 1950s, and many had green cards.” Others, as Reichlin-Melnick noted, “on ICE’s non-detained docket with a homicide conviction has likely been in the country for decades, served a full criminal sentence, and can’t be removed because they’re from a country which restricts US deportations” or “managed to win some form of protection and relief from removal. They are now here legally, but remain on the docket and are required to check in with ICE periodically.” [Department of Homeland Security, accessed 9/30/24; Twitter/X, 9/28/24; The Washington Post, 9/30/24]
    • As the Department of Homeland Security noted, “the data goes back decades” and is not limited to just during the Biden-Harris administration. DHS issued a statement to clarify Mayorkas’ letter to Gonzales, stating, “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.” According to The Associated Press, a report by Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General “says that as of August 2016, ICE had about 368,574 people on its non-detained docket who were convicted criminals. By June 2021, shortly after Trump left office, that number was up to 405,786.” [Twitter/X, 9/29/24; AP News, 9/30/24]
    • The data includes those who are “under the jurisdiction or currently incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement partners,” according to DHS. As CNN summarized, these figures also include those who “were convicted of a crime at some point, usually in the US after their arrival; and are now living in the US while being listed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s ‘non-detained docket’ — where some have been listed for years, including while Trump was president, because their country of citizenship won’t let the US deport them back there.” [CNN.com, 9/29/24]
    • The ICE numbers “do not show that illegal immigrants are more likely to commit homicide than native-born Americans.” As explained by the vice president of economic and social policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, “Assuming all the migrants convicted of homicide committed their crime in the US (a major assumption that biases the calculation against my research), they are responsible for about 1.6 percent of all homicides during that time while being about 3.1 percent of the population. Assuming a homicide clearance rate of 65 percent over those 40 years, they are still responsible for less than 2.5 percent of all homicides under assumptions that maximize their domestic criminality. In other words, the ICE data confirm that illegal immigrants account for a smaller share of convicted murderers than their share of the population would suggest.” [Cato Institute, 9/30/24]

  • Fox News and Media Research Center attacked mainstream news for not immediately covering the ICE data

    • Fox News and Media Research Center attacked broadcast news for ignoring the supposedly “bombshell new” Immigration and Customs Enforcement data less than 24 hours after it had first been reported. Fox News.com went after ABC News and CBS News for failing to “mention the bombshell findings in their prime time nightly news segments on Friday altogether.” Media Research Council’s NewsBusters also criticized the networks for not covering the data and said they were instead running stories to “spin the border situation as positive.” [Fox News, 9/28/24; MRC NewsBusters, 9/28/24]

  • Right-wing media are misrepresenting the ICE data, with some claiming that Biden and Harris have allowed for “thousands of illegals” who are “murderers” and “rapists” to come in through their “open border”

    • Fox News host Jesse Watters claimed that the Biden administration is “catching convicted killers and letting them loose into the country” while reporting on the ICE data. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/27/24]
    • Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt asserted that the ICE data is “staggering” and that “this is scary to note that these illegals are running around that are convicted of crimes” and claimed that the Department of Homeland Security is “[working] to downplay” the data. Fox & Friends’ segment included a chyron that read: “ICE: 13k+ illegal migrants accused of murder are roaming free in U.S.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/30/24]
    • Twitchy published an article titled “ICE's Admission About Thousands of Illegals Released Into US Should END the Harris Campaign.” The piece claimed, “The truth of the matter is that Biden and Harris opened up the border on day one in office, and since then millions and millions of people have entered the U.S. illegally.” [Twitchy, 9/27/24]
    • Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway claimed that Harris’ “administration allowed nearly half a million criminals to be in the country and roam freely.” Hemingway continued, “This is something that would be ending a presidential campaign in any sane country.” [The Federalist, 9/29/24]
    • While reporting on the ICE statistics, Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins compared them to the national debt clock, saying, “Think of this nondetained docket like the national debt, only instead they’re accruing murderers and rapists.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/30/24]
    • The Gateway Pundit published an article titled “TREASON: ICE Report Reveals Over 13,000 Murderers, 15,000 Rapists, and 425,000 Convicted Criminals Allowed Into America by Biden-Harris Open Border.” The piece claimed, “With the Biden-Harris administration’s open-door policies, America is becoming a dumping ground for violent criminals. Communities are living in fear, and law-abiding citizens are left to bear the brunt of this regime’s utter disregard for public safety.” [The Gateway Pundit, 9/27/24]
    • An article published by Fox News erroneously conflated noncitizens with “illegal immigrants” in its reporting of the ICE data. The article also amplified a quote from House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green in which he claimed that “the Biden-Harris administration is actively releasing tens of thousands of criminal illegal aliens into our communities.” [Fox News, 9/27/24]
    • Fox News contributor Guy Benson wrote on X: “As Harris performs her insulting song & dance at the border today, we have this statistic,”sharing Fox News’ reporting on the ICE data. [Twitter/X, 9/27/24]
    • MAGA strategist Alex Bruesewitz posted on X that “13,000 known illegal immigrants who were convicted of homicide and 15,000 convicted of sexual assault have been released into the country by Kamala Harris.” [Twitter/X, 9/27/24]
    • Fox News host Mark Levin claimed that the ICE data is “the factual, actual, unequivocal, undebatable result of Harris and Biden on the border.” Levin continued to attack Harris and Biden for the “13,099 murderers released into our country roaming in your communities right now,” calling Harris and Biden “contemptible” and “extremists.” [Fox News, Life, Liberty, and Levin, 9/28/24]
    • One America News Network host Dan Ball argued that “650,000 criminals” who were “dumped” in the U.S. were “arrested for other crimes in their countries.” Ball also claimed that the data proves that Trump’s claim that “they're emptying their jails and their mental institutions and they're sending murderers and rapists here” was correct. [One America News, Real America With Dan Ball, 9/29/24]
    • In a discussion about the ICE data, Fox News contributor Sara Carter claimed that  migrants who “we have no idea if they’ve ever been convicted of a crime” are “lost among our city, lost among the fabric of America and our children are in danger, we’re in danger, and also what about the terrorists?” Carter then blamed Harris for “her border policy to leave the border wide open and she's lying to everyone about this.” [Fox News, The Big Weekend Show, 9/29/24]