News of the World

[DerVVulfman]

DHS: Biden’s DHS was ‘cooking the books’ to pump up ICE arrests

Homeland Security Department officials accused the Biden administration Wednesday of “cooking the books” to falsely pump up immigration arrest numbers by counting illegal immigrants who were caught and released rather than detained and deported.

A senior U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said more than two-thirds of the arrests ICE tallied last year were “enforcement theater” and that the illegal immigrants were quickly back on the streets.

“We found tens of thousands of cases that were recorded as arrests when, in fact, these instances were illegal aliens that were simply processed and released into American communities,” said Todd Lyons, the new acting director at ICE. “The previous administration counted these arrests even though no immigration enforcement action was taken.”

He said that once the numbers are compared more fairly, ICE’s arrests under President Trump will look much better.

ICE officials recorded 32,809 interior arrests over the nearly 50 days from Jan. 20 to March 10. ICE said that was close to the total for all of 2024 once the “pass-through” arrests were discounted.

Among those were 1,155 known or suspected gang members and 39 known or suspected terrorists, almost three times the rate of the Biden administration, ICE said.

A senior ICE official said the directive to count the pass-through arrests came from the Biden administration’s Homeland Security Department, which oversees the agency.

The official said the point seemed to be to benefit the illegal immigrants. Once they had an ICE arrest, they could use it to show local governments they were in some legal process, which often qualified them for services.

“This gave them a pathway to establishing a long-term … residency here in the U.S.,” the official said. “These pass-through arrests, while they looked great, it really hindered our officers. We weren’t out there looking for the worst of the worst.”

. . .

Dems sour on Schumer but divided over his fate as leader

Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) stopped short Sunday of calling for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to be replaced — but she said it's time for Senate Democrats to decide if he's the man for the moment.

Why it matters: Schumer's decision to help Republicans pass a GOP-led funding bill to keep the government's lights on despite intense pressure to block the legislation highlighted growing fractures within his party that may put his job in jeopardy.

• When asked by reporters Friday if it was time for new leadership, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) provided no defense for his Senate counterpart, simply saying, "Next question."
  
• The rage brewing within Jeffries' caucus erupted Thursday after Schumer said he'd back the stopgap measure, prompting discussion of primary challenges and Senate floor protests, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.

. . .

By the numbers: While Dems trade barbs, new polling shows the party has hit record-low popularity.

• Just 27% of registered voters said they have positive views of the party, according to NBC News polling out Sunday. That's the party's lowest positive rating in the outlet's polling dating back to 1990.
  
• CNN's latest poll, also out Sunday, has the Democratic party's favorability at 29% among the American public — also a historic low dating back to 1992.
  
• CNN notes that number is in part driven by Democrats' dissatisfaction with their own party.

Every year, Dems always say it is bad to have a shutdown and always call out Republicans for such. Schumer on video from 2023 calling out Republicans for a possible shutdown for example. But if there was a government shutdown this time, it would totally have been owned by the Democrats and was already being labeled the Schumer Shutdown.