Why are criminal illegal aliens allowed to move freely in the United States?

Raise your hand if you think all convicted murderers, burglars, drug dealers, thieves, armed robbers, rapists, arsonists and gun dealers should be jailed. You are in good company.

Law-abiding people across the political spectrum agree with you. But not the Biden-Harris administration, including Alejandro Mayorkas, its previously indicted Homeland Security secretary. It has enabled over 95% of illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes to move freely within the country.

The government’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Patrick Lecheiter, confirmed this. On September 25, he wrote a letter to Congress laying out these numbers in detail but in a roundabout way. The letter included a table that divided the 662,566 criminal illegal aliens into two broad categories: those detained by ICE and those not detained.

The table also lists the number of convicted illegal aliens who were detained and not detained by crime, as well as the number of illegal aliens charged by crime on ICE’s “detained” and “not detained” list.

Consider that in the United States, according to the Department of Justice, the average sentence for convicted murderers is 17.5 years, for rapists 7.2 years, and for robbers 3.2 years.

Due to the government’s mass parole, “catch and release” and other irresponsible immigration policies, the percentage of foreign criminals convicted of serious crimes in custody is disastrous:

• Drop: 2.6%
• Dangerous drugs: 2.4%
• Fraud: 1.9%
• Murder: 2.1%
• Theft: 1.8%
• Robbery: 2.8%
• Sexual assault: 3.2%
• Weapons crimes: 3.4%

Percentages aside, the sheer number of foreign criminals convicted of serious crimes that the Biden-Harris administration has allowed to roam the country rather than incarcerate is staggering:

• Slump: 14,301
• Dangerous drugs: 56,533
• Fraud: 15,979
• Murder: 13,099
• Theft: 18,234
• Robbery: 10,031
• Sexual assault: 15,811
• Weapons crimes: 13,423

Think about these numbers for a minute. In 2022, there were 21,156 homicides in the United States. Yet the Biden-Harris administration has chosen to allow 13,099 illegal immigrants convicted of murder and 1,845 others charged with murder to roam our streets.

What excuse can there be for this reckless decision?

Consider that ICE has a capacity of 41,500 spaces to detain aliens. Parts of the federal government, including the military, could set up temporary detention camps for tens of thousands more criminal aliens on military bases and other federal property. So why isn’t every single convicted murderer, rapist, and gun dealer currently in ICE custody?

The number of illegal aliens convicted or charged with murder, kidnapping and sexual assault is 39,468. This means that every single one of these murderers, kidnappers and sexual deviants could be locked up to keep them out of our communities and protect the public from further crime. Yet the Department of Homeland Security admits it has arrested only 1,091 of them. That’s less than 3%.

This deliberate policy has left a trail of misery and death across the country.

This is particularly true for the families of the targets – such as the New York police officers Richard Yarusso and Christopher Abreu, who were shot. A Venezuelan gang member has been charged over the attack. Or Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was killed in Athens, Georgia. An illegal immigrant from Venezuela with a criminal record has been charged with murder.

Border czar Kamala Harris has touted her time as district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California as proof that she is tough on crime. As our colleague Zack Smith has written, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

But think about it another way: Would you approve of a district attorney who has a proven track record of sending only 2.1% of convicted murderers and 3.2% of convicted rapists to prison? We wouldn’t do that.

This is outrageous. This is dangerous. That’s inconsiderate. Anyone in the country who has a family member who was injured, killed or attacked by these 662,566 criminal illegal aliens, or whose property was broken into, stolen, burned or otherwise damaged, should know who is responsible for allowing these criminals to commit suicide are allowed to roam the streets while in the country.

They are President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.