Immigration and Customs Enforcement
made the unprecedented move of releasing thousands of illegal
immigrants
from its
detention centers
nationwide in recent weeks, according to a report.
Nearly 3,000 of the 20,000 total immigrants detained in jaillike holding centers across the country have been freed in an attempt to keep immigrants safe after the government mistakenly leaked the names and whereabouts of thousands of its detainees last November, the Los Angeles Times
reported
Thursday.
Another 2,200 immigrants who remain in detention may be released.
It is the first time that a massive error on the part of the U.S. government has required a widescale purging of
federal immigration facilities
.
MAYORS BRING BIDEN’S BORDER CRISIS TO HIS DOORSTEP AND DEMAND NATIONAL SOLUTION
The only other time that a large number of ICE detainees were released from custody was at the start of the coronavirus pandemic following pressure from immigrant advocacy groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, over concerns that people with preexisting conditions would be needlessly vulnerable to getting sick and dying if an outbreak occurred within the facilities.
ICE released immigrants who had the least serious criminal records.
It was not immediately clear the criminal histories of those released by ICE as a result of this data leak.
Publicly available data posted on ICE’s website identified 8,000 of the 20,000 people in detention at present were convicted criminals, had pending criminal charges, or were there for other immigration violations.
The remaining 12,000 had been referred from Customs and Border Protection, which apprehends immigrants at the border who have illegally entered the country.
For some asylum-seekers who have fled from enemy states, as was the case for two Russian citizens who the Washington Examiner
followed
on their journey in 2022, they may be held in custody while the U.S. vets them before releasing them into the country.
The other group of immigrants in ICE custody includes those who have been arrested within the U.S.
The Biden administration in 2021
instructed
ICE officers not to arrest any person illegally in the country but to focus its efforts targeting people with the most severe criminal backgrounds: those linked to national security/spying, known or suspected terrorists, and those with aggravated felony convictions.
The move was intended to focus ICE’s limited resources on the worst threats, but it also means that those who were arrested and detained were among those released.
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Last November, the Biden administration published the confidential information on its detention page. A nongovernmental organization brought the disclosure to ICE’s attention, and the page was taken down after five hours online.
