Seventy Percent of Illegal Aliens in Federal Jails Convicted of Non-Immigration Crimes | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    The U.S. government spent at least $162 million last year to incarcerate tens of thousands of criminal illegal immigrants for committing crimes that include rape, murder, kidnapping and terrorism. The offenders were imprisoned by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), which confirm that 94% of aliens jailed in 2019 were unlawfully present in the U.S. The alarming data was recently disclosed in a new report issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which disclose that nearly 70% of known or suspected aliens in BOP custody last year had been convicted of a non-immigration related offense and 39% of known or suspected aliens in USMS custody committed a non-immigration related crime.

    Under the Obama administration this type of pertinent information relating to illegal immigration was essentially ignored, but President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order in 2017 that, among other things, forces USMS and BOP to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with data on a quarterly basis regarding inmates and detainees identified as foreign-born during their criminal case process. In turn, ICE checks USMS and BOP data against its ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) case management system, the ENFORCE Alien Removal Module (EARM), and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Central Index System to identify aliens with immigration records and pending or completed removal proceedings. The president's order also directs the DHS Secretary and Attorney General to collect data on the following: The immigration status of all aliens incarcerated under the supervision of the BOP; the immigration status of all aliens incarcerated as federal pretrial detainees under the supervision of the USMS and the immigration status of all convicted aliens incarcerated in state prisons and local detention centers throughout the United States. The essential data is meant to ensure the public safety of the American people in communities across the country and to ensure the nation's immigration laws are faithfully executed, according to the president's order.

    The new report states that 51,074 known or suspected aliens were in DOJ custody in 2019, with the majority (27,494) in BOP facilities throughout the country and 23,580 in USMS custody at various institutions. The BOP operates 122 prisons nationwide while the USMS houses detainees in federal, state, local and private jails. More than half of the 51,074 were confirmed by ICE to have orders of removal. More than 28,500 of the aliens in BOP custody committed fraud and 1,147 weapons offenses, according to stats provided by the DOJ and DHS. Over 1,000 illegal immigrants jailed by the BOP carried out racketeering and continuing criminal enterprise offenses such as murder for hire and 535 committed sex crimes that include production or distribution of child pornography. Around 1,028 aliens executed serious felonies such as kidnapping, murder, terrorism, rape and extortion, the report states. More than half of the USMS arrestees committed drug offenses with the rest incarcerated for immigration crimes, fraud, weapons violations, sex offenses and racketeering. Nearly 1,000 of the illegal aliens jailed by USMS carried out serious felonies such as murder, rape, terrorism, and kidnapping.

    The DHS/DOJ report ends with specific cases of sentenced illegal aliens in BOP custody around the country. The first is a Colombian national sentenced to 180 months in prison in south Florida for smuggling illegal immigrants from his country into the U.S., resulting in a rape and two deaths. In South Carolina, a Mexican national was sentenced to 262 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. In Iowa, an illegal alien from Guatemala was sentenced to six months in jail after being convicted of three counts of unlawful use of an identification document and four counts of misuse of a Social Security number to obtain welfare benefits. In Louisiana, a Mexican national was sentenced to more than two decades in prison for distributing the psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and possessing firearms. In Mississippi, a Mexican citizen was sentenced to 330 months in federal prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. The list goes on and on, including convictions for drug trafficking, aggravated robbery, assault, theft, and illegal voting in 10 elections.