ICE-ERO Baltimore Fugitive Operations agents arrested and removed 19-year-old Guatemalan national Henry Argueta-Tobar, who was illegally in the country and convicted of raping a Maryland resident.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

From The Center Square

By Bethany Blankley

387,000 criminal noncitizens arrested by ICE between fiscal 2021 and 2023

More than 660,000 criminal foreign nationals identified to be deported by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement are freely living in communities nationwide.

Among them are those convicted or charged with violent crimes, including homicide, sexual assault and kidnapping, according to information released in response to a congressional request.

ICE was requested to provide information about the number of noncitizens on its docket for removal who are convicted or charged with a crime. As of July 21, 2024, “there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detained by ICE, and on the agency’s non-detained docket. Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges,” ICE Deputy Director Patrick Lechleitner said.

This includes criminal foreign nationals convicted of, or charged with, homicide (14,914), sexual assault (20,061), assault (105,146), kidnapping (3,372), and commercialized sexual offenses, including sex trafficking (3,971).

An additional 60,268 are on the list for burglary/larceny/robbery; 126,343 for traffic offenses including driving under the influence (DUIs) and 16,820 for weapons offenses.

ICE’s national docket refers to illegal foreign nationals who were apprehended by Border Patrol agents who then turn them over to ICE. Despite having a confirmed documented criminal history, ICE released them into the United States.

Lechleitner notes that some local jurisdictions “have reduced their cooperation with ICE, to include refusal to honor ICE detainer requests, even for noncitizens who have been convicted of serious felonies and pose an ongoing threat to public safety” due to their so-called “sanctuary city” policies. “However, ‘sanctuary’ policies can end up shielding dangerous criminals, who often victimize those same communities,” he said.

Because of local jurisdictions refusing to cooperate with ICE, the agency lifted detainers for 24,796 known criminals and released them into the U.S., he said. The data is from Oct. 1, 2020, through July 22, 2024.

Among them, state and local law enforcement agencies refused to comply with 23,591 detainer requests; 1,205 detainer requests were lifted “due to insufficient notice to ICE.”

Also during this period, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations issued 2,897 detainers that were declined by state or local law enforcement agencies even after the subject of the detainer request had a subsequent apprehension by ICE ERO, according to the report.

Lechleitner also notes that “most noncitizens who are convicted of homicide are typically not eligible for release from ICE custody under §236(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act” but “ICE officers may use their discretion in making custody determinations and release noncitizens with conditions.” He says these determinations are made on a “case-by-case basis.”

In response, U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-TN, said, “It may be shocking to hear that the Biden-Harris administration is actively releasing tens of thousands of criminal illegal aliens into our communities, but their own numbers conclusively prove this to be the case.

“This defies all common sense. Under President Biden and his ‘border czar,’ Vice President Harris, DHS law enforcement has been directed to mass-release illegal aliens whom they know have criminal convictions or are facing charges for serious crimes – and these dangerous, destructive individuals are making their way into every city and state in this country. How many more Americans need to die or be victimized before this administration is forced to abide by the laws they swore to uphold?

“This is madness. It is something no civilized, well-functioning society should tolerate.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the number was “shocking.”

“If accurate, it means that almost 10%” of the criminal illegal foreign nationals released into the country by the Biden-Harris administration “are criminals. It also debunks the narrative that illegal immigrants are less likely to commit crime. We can’t survive four more years of this.”

More than 387,000 criminal noncitizens were arrested by ICE ERO agents in fiscal years 2021 through 2023, The Center Square first reported.

The majority arrested were citizens of Mexico, Nicaragua, Columbia and Venezuela.

The majority of arrests occurred in Dallas and Houston, Texas, according to an ICE online statistical dashboard. The most common arrests are of those convicted of DUIs, drug possession, and assault and criminal (non-civil) traffic offenses like hit-and-run or leaving the scene of an accident, ICE says.

Additionally, a separate data point shows that U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol apprehensions of criminal noncitizens totaled nearly 54,000 since fiscal 2021, according to CBP data as of Sept. 16. The majority were for illegal entry and reentry and DUIs.

From The Center Square

By Bethany Blankley 

Retired FAA special agent says ‘lights are blinking’ now more than before 9/11

In the last year, terrorist threats have increased to a level not seen since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, only worsening after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel, federal officials say.

“We are living on borrowed time,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told The Center Square in an exclusive interview. “I believe that today we’re at a greater risk for a major terrorist attack than we have been at any point since Sept. 11, 2001. The policies of [President] Joe Biden and [Vice President] Kamala Harris and [U.S. Rep.] Colin Allred have made every Texan and every American much less safe.”

Cruz faces Allred in a tight race for his U.S. Senate seat in November.

“When you combine their disastrous foreign policy, flowing over $100 billion to the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, which in turn flows directly into the pockets of Hamas and Hezbollah, when you combine that incredibly weak foreign policy with Kamala Harris and Colin Allred’s open borders, the result is an invitation for terrorists to murder Americans.”

Of the numerous Biden-Harris border policies Cruz has identified as dangerous and illegal, one involves flying millions of illegal foreign nationals nationwide and even housing them in airports at taxpayer expense. He’s demanded answers on the “incredible lapses in vetting and screening illegal aliens at airports” following reports “that multiple airports have housed illegal aliens and that the Biden-Harris administration has flown in 435,000 unvetted aliens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, directly into the United States.”

That number has increased to 530,000 according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, in addition to 813,000 arriving through a CBP One app and an untold number through Biden-Harris parole programs. Cruz, House and Senate Republicans, attorneys general and federal judges argue they are illegal.

“Tragically, it is only a matter of time before another major terrorist attack is likely to occur because of Kamala Harris and Colin Allred’s open border policies,” Cruz said, referring to the Dallas Democrat who is challenging him in his Senate race. Allred has voted against border security measures that other Texas Democrats supported.

When asked to comment about terrorism threats Allred’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

In a recent campaign ad, Allred says, “I’m working with both parties to finally secure the border, to add more border patrol agents, crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking,” also pointing to a failed Senate border bill to solve the border crisis.

Among others, Cruz requested information about the Massachusetts Port Authority and Boston Logan International Airport, the airport used by a number of 9/11 terrorists.

Retired U.S. Federal Aviation Administration special agent Brian Sullivan was instrumental in surfacing Logan Airport’s screening checkpoint vulnerabilities and among the first to warn about a potential terrorist attack.

“The warning lights are blinking now even more so than they were 23 years ago,” he told The Center Square.

Sullivan conducted a sting at the Logan Airport in May 2001 and warned the FAA, former U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-MA, and the Massachusetts Port Authority of checkpoint vulnerabilities, the same checkpoints used by the 9/11 terrorists.

“No one listened then and nobody is listening now. That’s what scares me,” he said, referring to the Biden-Harris administration.

Sullivan, a Vietnam veteran, served in the military police retiring as a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army and worked as an FAA special agent for ten years. He shares the same concerns as military and intelligence leaders that Americans are in danger because of a “soft invasion” of primarily single military age men illegally entering the U.S. and migrant warfare, first reported by The Center Square.

Earlier this year, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned about an ISIS smuggling ring coming through the border and of increased security risks posed by China and Iran. Congressional Republicans also have demanded answers about terrorist threats.

In June, a former CIA deputy director warned that a terrorist attack could occur before the election.

Since then, hundreds of members of ISIS are confirmed to have illegally entered the U.S., officials say vetting isn’t occurring, Chinese illegal border crossers have breached U.S. military bases, the greatest number of known or suspected terrorists have been apprehended at the U.S.-Canada border, Canadian officials have expressed alarm, and Cruz and others called for greater security due Hamas members entering from Canada, as Jewish Americans, he and others are targeted by pro-Hamas protestors.

In the last few months, three assassination attempts were foiled against former President Donald Trump, including by an Iran-linked Pakistani, Trump has been briefed on an Iranian assassination plot, and President Joe Biden extended a 2001 executive order declaring a national emergency due to terrorism threats.

This was preventable, Cruz argues. Biden, Harris and Allred policies “have made every Texan and every American much less safe.

“Right now, today, Iran has declared a jihad demanding that terrorists murder Americans. Hamas has declared a jihad demanding that terrorists murder Americans. Hezbollah has declared a jihad demanding that terrorists murder Americans. ‘Palestinian Islamic Jihad,’ true to their name, has declared a jihad demanding that terrorists murder Americans.”

“The only solution,” he says, “is to throw Joe Biden and Kamala Harris out of office, to reelect Donald Trump, to reelect me, and elect a strong Republican Senate and a strong Republican House” who “will secure the border and we will do so in a matter of weeks.

“The open invitation of Kamala Harris and Colin Allred, that’s what’s caused this crisis. We know how to fix it. We’ve done it before,” he said, referring to implementing Trump-era policies that “achieved the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years.”