President Joe Biden’s administration released over 1,300 criminal illegal aliens in a single month, according to recently disclosed statistics.
Immigration officials released 521 convicted criminal aliens and 795 with pending criminal charges in December 2022, per data released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The number of convicted criminal aliens and those with pending charges released was up from 58 percent from the month prior and 48 percent from October 2022.
Convicted criminals are defined as people who violate immigration law and have a criminal conviction at the time they’re taken into custody by ICE. The exact convictions are not detailed.
Other immigrants have pending criminal charges at the time of arrest.
Most of the releases stemmed from orders of recognizance, or an interim determination that the alien in question is “not a detention priority.”
Others were under orders of supervision, were released due to a field office being “unable to obtain a travel document,” or put on parole. The latter is a case-by-case determination for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit” enabled by federal law.
“The law explicitly requires that those who cross the border illegally be detained, but the Biden administration clearly doesn’t want to detain or deport anyone. So it isn’t surprising that they are releasing criminal aliens as well,” Ron Kovach, press secretary at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told The Epoch Times via email. “Public safety and the rule of law are under attack to advance their radical open borders agenda.”
Immigration officers told The Washington Times, which first reported on the data, that the releases stemmed from wanting to clear out room in preparation for the end of Title 42, a public health order that gives authorities the ability to quickly expel some illegal immigrants due to concerns they may have COVID-19.
ICE did not dispute the report but declined to comment.
The Supreme Court in late December 2022 ordered the administration to keep Title 42 in place.
