In an exclusive report on the The Ingraham Angle last evening (Fox News 10 P.M. E.T.), U.S. attorney Zachary Terwilliger broke major news about the DOJ's brand new report on the number and costs of the incarceration of illegal aliens in federal custody. The segment, and the comments by Terwilliger, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Ingraham further expose the Left's persistent lie that illegals in the U.S. commit additional crimes at a lower rate than U.S.-born citizens.

A brief article posted at Fox News dot com, immediately following Ingraham's program Tuesday, summarized the segment:

Nearly 60,000 known or suspected illegal immigrants [sic] are being held in federal prisons, according to a report obtained by Fox News Tuesday from the Department of Justice. Quoting the report, he said "criminal aliens" make up 21 percent of those in the Federal Bureau of Prisons custody and 38 percent of those in Marshals custody. Terwilliger lamented that a "staggering" amount of resources are being diverted to fighting illegal immigration at the expense other problems like a rising opioid epidemic and rising crime rates in certain areas.

Adding context to this latest news is the fact that tens of thousands of illegals who have managed to make it across the border are being released into the country every month, and "hundreds of thousands" of illegal aliens who committed additional crimes remain free in the U.S.

Hopefully, the new DOJ report on the massive number of illegal criminals in federal custody will be given the wide attention that it deserves. The report, it should be noted, does not include illegals who are in jails and prisons at the state and local levels — a number that is "significantly greater," according to Ingraham, than the number of criminal illegal aliens in federal custody.

Terwilliger said the next report from the DOJ on the problem should address the financial cost to the federal government of dealing with illegal alien criminals. He estimated, however, that the cost of the U.S. Marshals Service having to deal with illegals (who are in custody awaiting trial, for example) is $500 million a year, which does not include the costs due to illegal aliens incurred by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

The fact that we have this kind of data at all is due to the actions of President Donald Trump. As the Center for Immigration Studies reported in an article on June 12, 2018:

Five days after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13768 entitled "Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States." In this order, he required the government to release certain documents detailing the effects of illegal immigration. Subsequently, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice began releasing the quarterly Alien Incarceration Report.

Previous reports, including the quarterly report released on June 7, 2018, are available online. This new one will be soon, as well.

Peter Barry Chowka writes about politics, media, popular culture, and health care for American Thinker and other publications. Peter's new website is http://peter.media. Follow him on Twitter at @pchowka.