Former President Donald Trump slammed Vice President Kamala Harris during a Michigan rally Friday after federal immigration authorities admitted that close to 15,000 illegal immigrants convicted or accused of homicide are in the US and not in their custody.
“She let our American sons and daughters be raped and murdered at the hands of vicious monsters,” Trump told supporters during a rally in Walker, outside of Grand Rapids.
As Trump spoke, Harris was on her way to Arizona to visit the US-Mexico border region for just the second time since becoming vice president.
ICE provided detailed numbers about migrants in their custody who have been convicted or accused of crimes to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) on Wednesday, and the congressman published the data on Friday ahead of the veep’s arrival.
Trump mused Friday that the timing may not have been a coincidence.
“So these numbers just came out,” he said. “Nobody’s ever seen these numbers. For years nobody’s ever seen them. And probably some patriot in ICE or somebody, just did something. They just said, ‘The country is going bad. You can’t have a country like that.’”
“As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket —13,099 criminally convicted MURDERS!” tweeted Gonzales about the ICE data.
“Americans deserve to be SAFE in our own communities.”
The letter from ICE acting director Patrick Lechleitner did not indicate how many criminal migrants crossed the border during the Harris-Biden administration or how many were in state or local custody.
“I knew it before, but these numbers are actually worse than I ever thought,” Trump said Friday. “They should have been released far earlier so that we could have done something about it.
“She doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing,” he added of Harris. “She should resign in disgrace for what she’s done to our country, not run for president.”
Trump has said repeatedly this week that Harris should have implemented tougher border policies as immigration “czar” during her three-and-a-half years as vice president.
Harris has blamed Republicans tanking a bipartisan border security spending bill as the reason why the migrant crisis continues.
On Friday, however, she is expected to announce she will implement further measures if elected — like putting in place “stronger emergency authorities,” appearing to play right into criticism by Trump and elected Republicans.
