Commentary: Lies about criminal migrants

It is not news that Donald Trump is, in the words of Sen. Ted Cruz, “a pathological liar.” According to Washington Post fact checkers, he told 30,573 lies during his tenure in the White House.

We were told that Vice President Kamala Harris intended to ban windows and prohibit cows and cars if she took office; we must overcome this dire threat to the republic. The corporate media may have become so inured to the cavalcade of mendacity that it regards it as unremarkable. Or it may be engaged in “sane-washing,” a Trump-era term meaning to minimize and package absurd statements to make them seem mainstream. Referring to Kamala Harris, on Oct. 2 Trump stated, “13,000 convicted murderers entered our country during her three-and-a-half year period as Border Czar.” He added, “They were allowed to openly roam our country.” The following day he increased the number as he posted that Harris “allowed almost 14,000 MURDERERS to freely and openly roam our Country (sic).” The affirmation appears to come from a letter Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director P.J. Lechleitner sent to Rep. Tony Gonzalez, R-Texas, stating that 13,099 immigrants convicted of homicide were not in custody of the agency. Nevertheless, this does not mean that they “roam around freely” and are not incarcerated by any law enforcement agency.

Trump purported to give the impression that people convicted of homicide but not under detention by ICE had been convicted of murder in their own countries but were nevertheless allowed to cross into the U.S. and live without constraints, all under the Biden/Harris administration.

On Sept. 29 The Department of Homeland Security issued an explanation that the figure spans a period of several years and includes migrants who came into the U.S. during the Trump administration and previous ones, extending over the last 40 years. It does not specify that the 13,099 people came into the U.S. during the Biden/Harris administration.

The communique diplomatically states, “The data in this letter is being misinterpreted. The data goes back decades. It includes individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody was made long before this administration. It states that the statistics are about non-citizens entering the country under any administration, including Trump’s, and been subsequently convicted of a crime and are now in the U.S. listed on ICE’s “non-detained docket.”

Some have been on the list for years, including during Trump’s presidency, because their country of citizenship will not accept their return via deportation. Moreover, the list includes people who are actually serving sentences for crimes committed while in the U.S.

“It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction or currently incarcerated by federal, state, or local law enforcement partners.” (Daniel Dale, CNN, Sept. 29).

John Sandweg, acting director of ICE under the Barack Obama administration, stated that it is “100% false to say that all the homicide offenders on the non-detained list came into the U.S. during Harris’ vice presidency.” According to Sandweg, “These are individuals who undoubtedly entered the United States over a long period of time. … A lot of them have probably been on the list for 20 years, where the U.S. has been unable to deport.”

In these cases such individuals have to be released but are monitored electronically and required to report to ICE.

Nevertheless, on Oct. 12, the day after the dance party, Trump said again that “13,000 illegal immigrants convicted of murder have been caught at the border and then released into the United States. When you look at the crime, the people who are coming in, murderers, 13,099 murderers, let in over the last short period of time.” On Oct. 17, Trump said, “13,000 illegal immigrants convicted of murder have been caught at the border and released into the United States.” Then, “It came out that 13,099 were let in during their administration — they tried to say linger, wrong, over the last three-and-a half years — 13,000 people come on-murderers (sic).”

There are four egregious lies in Trump’s oft-repeated narrative:

1. All of the 13,099 individuals in question entered the U.S. during the Biden/Harris administration.

2. They are “allowed to openly roam our country.”

3. They were known to have been convicted of murder in their home countries but were allowed to enter the country anyway.

4. Kamala Harris as vice president has had the authority to close the U.S. border with Mexico.

Trump makes these statements almost daily, seemingly applying the practice of Nazi official Joseph Goebbels, who wrote “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Jeffrey Crafts lives in McAllen.

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