9 in 10 Non-Citizen Federal Prisoners Are Illegal Aliens

Today, President Trump rejected the bipartisan immigration deal proposed by Congress. He cited the deal’s weakness on border security and immigration reform, and claimed that it did not represent what he campaigned for.

Trump is right. The deal was weak, and illegal immigration is still a huge problem. This newspaper has written extensively on how illegal immigration costs America billions every year and how to fix our broken immigration system.







The deal proposed by Congress did little to curtail the adversities of our immigration system and the President was right to refuse this deal. Illegal immigrant criminal activity would still be appallingly high—any deal must include money to build the wall and curtail illegal immigrant crime.

Illegal Immigrants Are Over-Represented in Federal Prisons

Illegal immigrants are grossly over-represented in federal prisons.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 35,000 people held in federal custody are illegally in the United States, and more than 1 in 5 people in Bureau of Prisons custody were foreign born.

This data was released pursuant to President Trump’s executive order, signed back in January 2017, to keep track of and release data on incarcerated immigrants to help his immigration agenda.

The press release summarized the findings:

A total of 58,766 known or suspected aliens were in in [Department of Justice] custody at the end of FY 2017, including 39,455 persons in [Federal Bureau of Prisons] custody and 19,311 in [United States Marshals Services] custody. Of this total, 37,557 people had been confirmed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be aliens (i.e., non-citizens and non-nationals), while 21,209 foreign-born people were still under investigation by ICE to determine alienage and/or removability.

Among the 37,557 confirmed aliens, 35,334 people (94 percent) were unlawfully present. These numbers include a 92 percent unlawful rate among 24,476 confirmed aliens in BOP custody and a 97 percent unlawful rate among 13,081 confirmed aliens in USMS custody.

These statistics are astounding, and show illegal immigrants are wildly over-represented, since illegal immigrants don’t nearly make up 90 percent of the total non-citizen immigrant population.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions outlined that these rates are also entirely preventable:

The simple fact is that any offense committed by a criminal alien is ultimately preventable. One victim is too many[.] It’s time for Congress to enact the President’s immigration reform agenda so that we start welcoming the best and brightest while turning away drug dealers, gang members, and other criminals.

Sessions is right. There is no reason to have criminal aliens. One of the many liberal lies is that illegal immigrants don’t increase crime (illegal immigrants actually do cause more crime). If this report indicates anything, it’s that we should be more vigilant when it comes to illegal immigration.

Aside from immigration reform by Congress, the government should start by increasing vetting and cracking down on unlawful entries and overstays into the country. Luckily the DHS is taking steps to roll out visa overstay tracking software this year.

For more ideas on how to curtail illegal immigration, check out our comprehensive piece on how to stop illegal immigration.