Great Lakes Wire

Mike Rogers, a U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan, has raised concerns about the release of convicted criminals in the United States. He said there are "over 400,000 convicted criminals let loose on our streets," following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report that showed non-citizens convicted of crimes were released by ICE in the U.S. Rogers provided his statement to the Great Lakes Wire on October 8.

"This is what Kamala's and Slotkin's “vetting” of migrants has done to our communities," said Rogers. "Over 400,000 convicted criminals let loose on our streets. We will secure the border on Day One!"

On September 25, Patrick J. Lechleitner, deputy director of ICE, responded to a request from Representative Tony Gonzalez regarding information on immigrants with criminal backgrounds. Lechleitner's letter indicated that the ICE non-detained docket currently includes over 662,000 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions or pending charges. Among these individuals are 13,099 convicted murderers and more than 15,000 convicted of sexual assault living in the U.S., according to ICE's records.

According to Fox News, thousands of illegal immigrants convicted of felonies are "roaming the U.S." The data does not specify when these individuals arrived or were released by ICE. As of August 2016, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported over 368,000 convicted criminals on the non-detained docket. The number of non-citizens doubled during the Biden Administration from 3.2 million to 7.3 million; however, there is no clear data on their entry or release dates.

Another report from ICE highlighted by Fox News revealed that the agency has lost track of over 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children over the last five years. An internal source at DHS sent a report titled "Management Alert - ICE Cannot Monitor All Unaccompanied Migrant Children Released from DHS and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Custody" to Congress. It showed that while ICE transferred more than 448,000 unaccompanied children to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2019 to 2023, it could not account for many who were released and subsequently failed to appear at their immigration court hearings.

Rogers is running for U.S. Senate in Michigan and was previously a U.S. Congressman representing Michigan's 8th district.