The Biden administration has claimed for three years its immigration-enforcement policies center more on criminal aliens than its predecessor’s did.
As Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas put it in his 2021 memo, “By exercising our discretionary authority in a targeted way, we can focus our efforts on those who pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security and thus threaten America’s well-being.”
It turns out it’s Team Biden’s policies that threaten America’s well-being.
The Biden administration has dramatically reduced arrests and deportations of criminal aliens, per new Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.
Comparing Donald Trump’s first three years (fiscal years 2017-19) and President Biden’s first three years (FY 2021-23), there’s a 57% decline in criminal-alien arrests and a 67% drop in criminal-alien deportations.
ICE made 389,237 arrests and 485,930 deportations of criminal aliens (those with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges) during Trump’s first three years but only 165,650 arrests and 158,931 deportations during Biden’s.
When I was at ICE, I had the agency report criminal-offense data in its annual reports for the first time ever; now that transparency allows for a crime-by-crime comparison between administrations — and the result is deeply troubling from a public-safety perspective.
The rap sheets of criminal aliens arrested in Trump’s first three years included more than 1,542,707 total offenses.
The rap sheets of those arrested in Biden’s first three years included 681,614 total offenses.
That’s a 56% decline and clear evidence the Biden administration has dramatically reduced ICE’s focus on criminal aliens.
It’s not that foreigners are suddenly committing fewer crimes; it’s that Team Biden is choosing to issue fewer detainer requests to sheriffs who have arrested criminal aliens.
There’s been a 44% drop in detainers issued under Biden, which results in sheriffs simply releasing criminal aliens back into the country rather than to ICE custody.
And as Texas and Louisiana uncovered in their lawsuit against Biden’s Department of Homeland Security, the administration has been rescinding ICE detainer requests issued during the Trump years.
Beneficiaries of this pro-crime policy during a 60-day period in Louisiana included an alien convicted of indecent behavior with juveniles and sexual battery, an alien convicted of possessing fentanyl, an alien convicted of aggravated second-degree battery and an alien convicted of aggravated assault with a firearm.
If the Biden administration cared about public safety, these individuals and countless more in other jurisdictions could have been included in ICE’s annual arrest and removal data.
Around 5 million illegal aliens have arrived since Biden took office, so there’s no lack of work for ICE.
Looking at the actual crimes makes the horrific public-safety threats created by Biden and his political appointees even more vivid.
During Trump’s first three years, there were 235,800 drunk-driving arrest records on the rap sheets of aliens ICE arrested; during Biden’s, there were 69,282 such records — a 71% drop.
If there were ever a time for Mothers Against Drunk Driving to speak out against bad federal policy, it’s now.
In Trump’s first three years, there were 57,751 larceny arrest records on the rap sheets of ICE-arrested aliens; in Biden’s, there were only 21,114 — a 63% decline.
Arrests of aliens with assault records are also down.
There were 145,011 assault records on the rap sheets of aliens arrested during Trump’s first three years but just 75,454 under Biden — a 48% drop.
And there’s been a 55% decrease in arrests of aliens with burglary records under Biden: 35,821 vs. 16,024.
Despite the Biden administration’s tough talk on fentanyl and drug-trafficking, criminal aliens with dangerous-drugs records have been a top beneficiary of its immigration policies.
During Trump’s first three years, there were 220,818 dangerous-drugs records on the rap sheets of aliens arrested; under Biden, there have been only 101,244 such records — a 54% drop.
The Biden administration has overseen a dramatic decline in every crime category ICE reports, and my full analysis is online.
Bottom line: President Biden’s reckless immigration policies have significantly undermined public safety and national security, and the threats the administration has created will continue to inflict damage on America for many years to come.
Jon Feere, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief of staff during the Trump administration, is the director of investigations at the Center for Immigration Studies.
