Fact-checking Trump’s “border czar” claims about non-citizen convictions

President-elect Donald Trump appointed “border king” Tom Homan said he wanted to set priorities deportation noncitizens with criminal records when Trump’s second term begins in January.

This happened after recent high-profile criminal cases involving illegal immigrants, including murder Georgia nursing student Laken Riley by a Venezuelan immigrant who illegally crossed the US southern border.

But in interviews, Homan and other top Republicans shared conflicting and inflated numbers about the total number of noncitizens that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials say fall into that category.

In a recent Fox News interview, Homan said there are “over 1.5 million convicted criminal aliens with removal orders that we will be looking for” in this country. Trump’s transition team said that number includes some migrants who crossed the country illegally, although they are not considered “convicted criminals.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has claimed In recent weeks, the number of migrants arrested for violent crimes is “by some estimates 3 or 4 million people.”

However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided plenty lower grades to Congress.

As of July 21, ICE’s national log, which tracks immigrants facing deportation proceedings, listed approximately 660,000 noncitizens with criminal records, including 436,000 convicted felons and 227,000 with pending criminal charges.

This includes noncitizens in ICE custody and those not detained by the agency.

There are only estimates of the number of non-citizens currently in the US. As of 2022, there were an estimated 24.5 million noncitizens, including at least 11 million unauthorized immigrants and 13.5 million people who are legal permanent or temporary legal residents, according to estimates Pew Research Center based on data from the latest population census.

According to Homan, about 6% of non-citizens would be convicted felons. According to Johnson, closer to 12% of noncitizens would be criminals, or 24% of the unauthorized population.

According to ICE data, about 2.6% of non-citizens in the US have a criminal record.

Representative Trump’s response from the transition period

According to S. According to Mario Russell, executive director of the Center for Migration Studies, a think tank, the agency’s overall figures are well below the millions suggested by Homan and Johnson, and ICE’s data remains the most accurate available for tracking non-citizens with criminal records. supports the policy of protecting the rights of migrants.

Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Brian Hughes, a spokesman for Trump and Vance, told CBS News that Homan was looking at the number of migrants who have crossed the U.S. illegally and evaded border patrol, sometimes referred to as “absconding” by Immigration and Border Protection officials.

“Tom Homan is right – nearly 2 million ‘fugitives’ have evaded the Border Patrol under the wide-open Biden-Harris border, more than four times the average under President Trump,” Hughes said.

The Border Patrol estimates that approximately 1.7 million migrants have escaped apprehension since the start of fiscal year 2021. However, there are no official data on the number of so-called “fugitives” with a criminal record.

There have also been “defections” during the Trump administration, but the average number during Trump’s first three years in office, before immigration cuts during COVID-19, was four times lower than the total in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, according to the data. testimony Steven A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.

In some interviews, Homan also gave lower numbers that are more in line with ICE data. For example, Homan told NewsNation on Nov. 14 that “authorities have identified more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions.”

What ICE data shows about the number of non-citizens with criminal records

Non-citizens—including green card holders—can lose their legal right stay in the US after committing a crime. Many people on ICE’s trail remain incarcerated and can only be deported after serving their sentences.

The data shows that many of the 436,000 convicted felons on the list, including more than 13,000 people convicted of murder and 62,000 people convicted of assault, have been in the US for years. Non-violent offenders are also on ICE’s list, including more than 125,000 people convicted of or convicted of traffic violations.

In 2016, there were 368,574 convicted felons on ICE’s non-detainer list under the Obama administration, according to published data Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security. In June 2021, a few months into the Biden administration, they were 405,786 convicted criminals in the list.

Some criminal noncitizens remain in the U.S. for years because they come from countries that do not accept or limit U.S. deportations, including Cuba, Venezuela, and China. Others are protected by law from deportation UN Convention because they face torture if they return to their homeland.

Government statistics indicate that a relatively small proportion of migrants processed by the Border Patrol have criminal records in the U.S. or other countries that share information with U.S. officials.

Also, although the data is not exhaustive, it is available teaching suggest that undocumented immigrants are incarcerated less often than native-born Americans.

Former Navy Secretary Says Trump’s Defense Secretary Pick Will Make Army ‘Weaker’

Investigators found that firefighters attended to the woman before she was found dead in the burning home

Exclusive discounts from CBS Mornings Deals