Former President Donald Trump recently claimed that President Joe Biden allowed 13,000 immigrant murderers into the United States and let them roam freely in American cities. However, fact-checker Glenn Kessler from The Washington Post investigated the origins of this claim and deemed it “outrageously false” and a “figment of his imagination.”
According to Kessler, the reality is far different from Trump’s assertion. Most of the individuals referenced in the claim have been incarcerated for years, with many already in prison long before Trump’s presidency.
The origin of the false claim appears to stem from a response by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director P.J. Lechleitner to a request for information from Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX). Lechleitner mentioned that there were approximately 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide who were not currently in ICE detention. However, Kessler clarifies that these individuals are not walking the streets freely, as Trump implied.
Instead, these convicted murderers are either serving time in other detention facilities or under the jurisdiction of other law enforcement agencies. “With limited space available in ICE detention centers, many criminals convicted of serious crimes are sent to other facilities to serve their terms,” Kessler explained.
Additionally, some noncitizens are placed in Alternatives to Detention programs, which track individuals through GPS or the SmartLINK phone app. However, convicted murderers do not qualify for these programs, as a 2021 Biden administration memo made detention a priority for noncitizens posing “a current threat to public safety.”
Moreover, the Department of Homeland Security further clarified the matter last month, explaining that the list of 13,000 convicted killers includes individuals who entered the U.S. over the past 40 years. Many of these individuals’ custody statuses were determined long before Biden’s administration, and many remain incarcerated or under the control of federal, state, or local law enforcement.
Kessler’s investigation reveals that Trump’s claim is not grounded in reality and misrepresents the situation, highlighting once again the former president’s pattern of making unfounded assertions to stir fear and political support.