If former President Donald Trump regains the White House, the 4.5 million immigrants who entered the country illegally will be a “top priority” for deportation, House Speaker Mike Johnson told the Post in an exclusive interview.
Trump, 78, has already vowed to remove “nearly 20 million” immigrants if he becomes the 47th president. His closest allies in the House see an opportunity to expedite the removal of the most dangerous immigrants.
“That first priority is about 4.5 million people, people who have already committed crimes,” Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Thursday. “They're in the system now.” [for] Shoplifting or whatever…or [having] did something unjust or illegal; ”
The numbers cited by Johnson are much higher than federal records show, but Republicans say the Harris-Biden administration has consistently downplayed immigration statistics, with nearly 2 million people known to have evaded arrest upon entering the country. It is pointed out that the “fugitives'' of “fugitives'' are ignored.
Many immigrants flock to so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions in blue states like New York and California, where authorities never ask or record their immigration status, and local law enforcement Cooperation with federal agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is also limited.
Republican Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance suggested in an Oct. 1 debate with Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz that there are approximately 1 million criminal immigrants in the United States.
“We have 20, 25 million illegal aliens in this country. What do we do with them?” Vance said when asked about future deportation plans. “I think the first thing we need to do is start with criminal immigrants, about 1 million of whom have crossed the border illegally and committed some type of crime.”
Shocking ICE data obtained by Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas) last month confirms that at least 662,566 immigrants have criminal records other than illegal border crossings, but most is not in federal custody.
At least 13,099 illegal immigrants roaming the United States have been convicted of murder, and 1,845 have been charged with murder. A further 20,061 people have been convicted or suspected of rape, and more than 100,000 people have been convicted or accused of assault.
Currently, only about 15,000 other immigrants have been charged or convicted of crimes, including 277 convicted murderers and 509 convicted rapists. .
“We know where they are, we know what they did, they're being held here, they have to go,” Johnson told the Post about the perpetrators.
The Speaker added that he was aware that deportation would be a “long” process. But he added that a “strong hand in the White House” pressuring the perpetrators back to their countries of origin would be a “huge step” in restoring order at the border.
ICE's current roster of immigrants in its domestic custody (immigrants flagged for deportation but not detained) is expected to reach 8 million by the end of this fiscal year, according to internal agency statistics. expected Fox News reported In June.
That number dates back to earlier presidential administrations, but has more than doubled under President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump's deportation could be similar to Operation Wetback, a 1954 dragnet operation in which more than 1 million immigrants were deported under former President Dwight Eisenhower.
The 45th president has vowed to leverage local law enforcement, the National Guard and the U.S. military to support ICE's work, but Republicans are pushing to approve higher spending levels to accomplish that. Congress would be needed.
Republicans believe this effort is critical given the appalling lack of vetting that allows potential terrorists, gang members, murderers, rapists, and assholes to enter the United States. There is.
Harris-Biden's lax border policies have resulted in immigrants with known gang ties being briefly detained but later released, and vulnerable American women like Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student in Georgia. He is considered to be the direct cause of the horrific murder of .
José Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan national listed in the Department of Homeland Security's internal files as a member of the violent Torren de Aragua gang, fled Mexico less than 24 hours later, waving his hands. and crossed the Texas border.
Even former President Bill Clinton, while stumbling on Harris' campaign trail last week, acknowledged that if immigrants “were all properly tested, this probably wouldn't have happened.”
Since Biden and Harris took office in January 2021, more than 10 million immigrants have entered the United States and been apprehended, of which 8 million were arrested, according to Customs and Border Protection data. It came across the southern border from Mexico.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged to Border Patrol officials in January that under the Harris-Biden administration, more than 85% of migrants who crossed the border were later released into the interior.
Biden, 81, also appointed Harris, 60, three months into the Oval Office to address the “root causes” of the country's increasingly chaotic wave of migrants, and she became the de facto “border emperor'' of the regime.
Johnson also told The Post on Thursday that he had “begged” the president earlier this year to reinstate Trump's “Remain in Mexico” policy, which Biden ended the month after taking office, to cut migrant admissions by up to 70%. “I did,” he said.
The total number of applications was a staggering record, but the president was undaunted.
“It's complicated,” Biden said, repeating the chairman's exchange. “Mexico doesn't want that.”
“I said, 'You don't have to make it more complicated, you just need to show leadership,'” Johnson recalled. “'With all due respect, you are the president of the United States. It doesn't matter what Mexico wants. You tell them.'
Johnson said Biden replied, “Things have changed.”
Asked if he believed Harris, who has vowed not to decriminalize border crossing, Johnson said: “She will say whatever her team says and whatever the script says to win the election.” And her record is very well known. ”
White House Press Secretary Angelo Fernandez Hernandez told the Post in a statement Friday that President Biden's actions this year have reduced insecurity between ports of entry by “more than 55 percent” and that the bipartisan negotiated border package has reduced insecurity between ports of entry. He blamed the Republicans for ruining it.
Johnson disputed the latter argument, telling the Post that the bill's supporters “couldn't even get Senate Democrats on board with this issue.”
“It was confusing,” the speaker added. “That would have codified a lot of the policies that caused the confusion.”
At least 1.3 million more migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Mexico were expedited into the United States by pre-booking flights or using the CBP One app, as long as they arrived at a port of entry. This is a program Congress will never undertake. Republicans agreed they were considering an illegal abuse of humanitarian parole.
That's not to mention the 1.9 million known “fugitives” who were observed upon entering the United States but never captured.
Johnson said even that number is significantly lower, considering that when he and his Republican colleagues visited the border, they witnessed migrants fleeing from Border Patrol agents disappearing from view without being counted. It is highly likely that this is an undercount.
“We're going to be living with this problem for the rest of our lives,” the speaker said.
An internal Border Patrol memo from earlier this month revealed that about 30% of the surveillance cameras monitoring the southern border were “down” due to “some technical issues,” NBC News reported. .
A Customs and Border Protection official told the Post that the memo indicates the number of “abscondations” could be “much higher than reported.”
Harris' campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
