President Trump Gives Keynote Address at Judicial Watch Roundtable


 

Arrests of illegal immigrants inside the United States nearly doubled last year over 2021 and tens of thousands had serious criminal histories that include multiple charges and convictions, according to a recently published Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report. The 80-page document, which contains fiscal year 2022 figures, helps illustrate the devastating impact of the Biden administration’s reckless open border policies which have allowed record-breaking numbers of migrants into the country with minimal or no vetting. This has made ICE’s task overwhelming as the Homeland Security agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws to preserve national security and public safety.

In 2022 ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) apprehended 142,750 illegal aliens in the U.S., nearly doubling the number of arrests it made in 2021, government figures included in the report show. Over 46,000 had a criminal history and an average of 4.3 charges and convictions, including more than 20,000 charges or convictions for assault, 5,500 for weapons crimes, 1,500 for homicide-related offenses, and 1,100 for kidnapping. The agency also removed 2,667 gang members last year, 55 terrorists, seven human rights violators and 74 foreign fugitives wanted by their government for serious crimes such as homicide, rape, terrorism, and kidnapping. In a press release announcing the year-end report ICE writes that the document showcases how the agency has responded to “increasingly complex transnational security threats.”

The language downplays the magnitude of the epic illegal immigration crisis that is gripping the nation and appears to be worsening. Fiscal year 2022 was a record-breaker for illegal immigration along the Mexican border. Besides arresting 2.4 million migrants (up from 1.73 million in 2021), Border Patrol agents apprehended hundreds of gang members—mostly from the famously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)—and dozens of people on the national terrorist watchlist. Federal agents also confiscated thousands of pounds of drugs, mainly methamphetamine. The alarming stats, released a few months ago, depict a chaotic Mexican border region rife with lawlessness that is inevitably seeping north. Keep in mind, the recently released ICE figures include those already inside the U.S., probably living in unsuspecting communities throughout the nation. ICE Acting Director Tae Johnson calls it “complex cross-border and domestic threats.”

The agency also conducted 72,177 removals last year to more than 150 countries worldwide, approximately half of them on charter flights. This includes 256 private, American taxpayer-funded flights to Guatemala, 220 to Honduras, 125 to Haiti and 120 to El Salvador. “Removed noncitizens had a total of 183,251 charges and convictions associated with them, for an average of 4.2 charges and convictions per person,” the report states. This includes 17,336 charges or convictions for assault, 7,370 for sex offenses and sexual assault, 4,711 for weapons crimes, 1,315 for homicide-related offenses, and 953 for kidnapping. “Removal management is a complex process that requires careful planning and coordination with a wide range of domestic and foreign partners and utilizes significant ERO resources,” the report says. “After a noncitizen receives a final order of removal and ERO has coordinated with necessary partners, ICE arranges their removal via a chartered flight, commercial flight, or land transport (for removals to a contiguous country).”

Last year ERO also issued 78,829 detainers for illegal immigrants arrested by local police for state crimes. The offenses include 26,186 assaults, 8,450 sex crimes, 2,934 robberies, 1,911 kidnappings and 1,751 homicides. The year-end report also reveals that an ICE subcomponent known as Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) conducted over 36,000 arrests and identified or assisted 1,170 victims of child exploitation as well as 765 victims of human trafficking. The division also set a record for seized currency and assets of more than $5 billion, an increase of about $4 billion from the previous year. HSI also seized 330 firearms, 43,466 rounds of ammunition and 92,055 pounds of narcotics from Mexican drug cartels, which are officially called Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) by the U.S. government.

While the nation’s Federal Air Marshals (FAM) are busy on the Mexican border providing illegal immigrants with welfare checks, transportation, and other basic services, Al Qaeda is planning attacks in the U.S. involving planes, according to high-level Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sources. Judicial Watch obtained from government sources a copy of the new intelligence alert, which was delivered on December 31, 2022, at 12:23:52 Greenwich Mean Time. The caption of the widely circulated warning reads: “Al-Qaeda says upcoming attacks on US, possibly involving planes, will use new techniques and tactics.”

The threat could not come at a worse time, as the Biden administration leaves aircraft at risk by sending 150-200 FAM monthly to the southern border to help deal with what it calls “a surge in irregular migration.” The deployments will continue indefinitely, according to multiple FAM sources, and the specially trained aviation security specialists are outraged. The agency works under the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which was created after 9/11 to prevent another terrorist attack. FAM is charged with protecting commercial passenger flights by deterring and countering the risk of terrorist activity. Nevertheless, in late October, the Biden administration began deploying the highly trained law enforcement officers to busy Border Patrol sectors to help with hospital watch, transportation, security and welfare checks at migrant facilities.

Days later the Air Marshal National Council, which represents thousands of FAM nationwide, accused TSA Administrator David Pekoske and FAM Director Tirrell Stevenson of violating federal law and overstepping their authority by assigning air marshals to assist the U.S. Border Patrol with the illegal immigration crisis. In a formal complaint to the DHS Inspector General, the group also accused the Homeland Security leaders of fraud, waste, and abuse of authority. Sending air marshals to El Paso, Texas, San Diego, California, Laredo, Texas, McAllen, Texas, Tucson, Arizona and Yuma, Arizona to transport illegal immigrants and conduct welfare checks has no relation to TSA’s core mission of transportation security, the complaint states. “The statute does not give the Administrator any authority to deploy TSA or FAM employees to the southern border to perform non transportation security related matters,” the complaint to the DHS IG says. “Further, under section (g) the statute describes what the Administrators authority is if an emergency, as defined by the Secretary of Homeland Security, is declared.” The act makes clear that the legislative intent is to only allow TSA to exercise authority and deploy its assets for transportation security, the report to the DHS watchdog confirms.

Hours after learning about the latest Al Qaeda threat, the Air Marshal National Council fired off a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as well as Pekoske and Stevenson reminding them that deploying FAM to the southern border to perform humanitarian work is reckless and putting the nation at extreme risk. “We are once again requesting you immediately stop these dangerous and unnecessary deployments and let our FAMs do what the American taxpayers pay them to do, protect and defend our transportation system,” the letter reads. “We have to ask how can you justify sending FAMs to the border in huge numbers, when the border is in your words secure, and there is no emergency? Yet we have major security incidents happening right now affecting our aviation security.”

Sonya Hightower-LaBosco, a retired FAM who serves as executive director of the Air Marshal National Council, confirmed that FAM are still being pulled off flights at a rate of about 200 a month to serve illegal immigrants at stations along the Mexican border. “They are making sandwiches for them and driving them around like Uber or picking up supplies,” Hightower-LaBosco told Judicial Watch on New Year’s Day. The head of the council, David Londo, called the redeployment of air marshals to the southern border “insane” considering the latest aviation threat from Al Qaeda. “Either they don’t care about aviation security, or they really think it is secure,” Londo said.