Misleading Headline of the Day

From this morning's WaPoo: When Trump declared national emergency, most detained immigrants were not criminals. Actual paper headline (at least in my edition), Most immigration detainees do not have criminal records, ICE figures show. Technically true, but just barely, according to the figures they give:

According to new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement figures obtained by The Washington Post, the nation’s immigration jails were not filled with such criminals. As of Feb. 9, days before the president’s declaration, nearly 63 percent of the detainees in ICE jails had not been convicted of any crime.

Of the 48,793 immigrants jailed on Feb. 9, the ICE data shows, 18,124 had criminal records. An additional 5,715 people had pending criminal charges, officials said, but they did not provide details. ICE also did not break down the severity of the crimes committed by or attributed to detainees.

An average of 59 percent of detainees in custody during this fiscal year had no criminal history, according to ICE.

So if you take the 18,124 convicted criminals, and add the 5,715 suspected criminals, most of whom will probably plea out, be deported, and re-enter the country illegally again, like the first 18,124, you get 48.85% either already convicted, or charged with criminal acts. Certainly, some of those detained have committed crimes, and simply got away with them. Given that nearly half are known to be criminals, that would certainly push the total well over 50%.

This is supposed to convince us there is "no crisis" at the border?

“It proves this is a fake emergency,” said Kevin Appleby, policy director at the Center for Migration Studies, a New York-based nonpartisan immigration think tank. “It really shows that what the president’s doing is abusing his power based on false information.”

Tell that to the people victimized by crimes committed by the illegal aliens.

Days earlier at a Cabinet meeting, as a budget deal over border security and immigration enforcement was falling into place, the president said U.S. officials were nabbing “incredible” numbers of criminals. Taking a card handed to him by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, he read from a list of crimes allegedly committed by immigrants: “Robberies: 11,177. Kidnappings: 4,112. Murders: 3,914.”

“So these are people that ICE is dealing with, and nobody can deal with them more effectively,” Trump said. “There’s probably no group in this country that does so much and gets, really, so little respect or love as ICE. It’s really a terrible thing. They’re doing an incredible job.”