Biden’s Immigration Policies are Worsening America’s Crime Wave

As the Southwest border crisis continues to create chaos, the United States is experiencing an equally concerning issue: a surging crime wave plaguing its communities.

According to the Council on Criminal Justice, murders rose across 22 U.S. cities in 2021, a 5 percent and 19 percent increase compared to 2020 and 2019, respectively. Other violent crime offenses such as aggravated assault and robbery swelled in 2021 compared to the two years prior. For nonviolent crime, motor vehicle thefts increased by 14 percent in 2021 compared to the previous year.

Some criminal justice experts have attributed President Joe Biden’s immigration and border directives as factors fueling the crime wave. So changing course on these border and immigration policies would help restore law and order on America’s streets.

Since taking office, President Biden’s administration has issued several memos that have prevented ICE agents from arresting and removing most criminals aliens, including those convicted of homicide, aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, and countless other offenses.

Under the Biden administration, ICE has also released more than 16,000 illegal aliens from their custody who have criminal charges and convictions for non-immigration violations. It makes no sense to forbid immigration agents from removing criminal aliens from our society. In reality, it’s incredibly dangerous.

In 2019, ICE data revealed that between 40 and 80 percent of immigration lawbreakers who have committed a criminal offense in the U.S. will re-offended. This falls in line with overall nationwide recidivism rates. This statistic suggests that many (perhaps most) released aliens will go on to reengage in illicit activity.

The administration can reverse course and allow ICE to arrest and deport foreign criminals without restrictions. This would help Americans and legal immigrants from falling victim to preventable crime.

Another area where President Biden could improve public safety is by securing the southern border. In Fiscal Year 2021, border officials apprehended more than 10,000 known criminal aliens along the Southwest border, surpassing the totals of the previous five years.

While these individuals were intercepted before reaching the interior of the U.S., it should prompt the following questions: How many illegal border crossers with criminal backgrounds successfully evaded capture by authorities, and did they commit new crimes in the U.S.? More than 500,000 illegal aliens are estimated to have evaded border authorities since President Biden took office.

The current crisis has the Border Patrol stretched so thin that it does not have enough agents to apprehend every unauthorized border crosser with a rap sheet. According to a FAIR report, illegal aliens are at least three times as likely as American citizens and legal immigrants to be incarcerated. Preventing the entry of nefarious individuals in the first place should be a top priority. Unless the president changes his lax enforcement and border policies, this issue will only worsen, and more criminal illegal aliens will put law-abiding citizens at risk.