Tennessee's Attorney General, Jonathan Skrmetti, has accused the Biden administration of releasing murderers and rapists as public health controls ended according to Just The News.
According to Tennessee’s top legal official, Jonathan Skrmetti, unsettling information has come to light involving the release of dangerous foreign nationals from U.S. custody. The controversy stems from federally obtained data that Skrmetti released, indicating that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been allowing individuals with serious criminal histories, including homicide and sexual assault, to leave detention facilities.
Uncovered during legal actions taken as the COVID-19-related Title 42 public health protections were phased out, the facts show a coordination effort by ICE with municipalities and nonprofit organizations to manage these releases strategically. This lawsuit-triggered data sharing has cast a harsh light on ICE's practices under the current administration.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee was first alerted in December 2022 about potential actions by ICE to coordinate with Nashville for managing a large influx of foreign nationals. These plans were supposedly part of a broader scheme of releasing migrants detained across various facilities, primarily focusing on those housed in Louisiana.
Despite the revealing of these coordination efforts, Tennessee's state leadership, including both the governor and U.S. Senators, actively opposed the mass release strategy.
Their pushback was pivotal in halting the immediate plans for such releases in the state, spotlighting the significant challenges and disagreements between state and federal authorities regarding immigration enforcement.
Despite efforts to stop these activities in Tennessee, the data released by Skrmetti’s office shows that over 7,000 detainees with serious criminal offenses were released from ICE facilities in Louisiana. The types of crimes committed by these individuals included not only homicide and sexual assault but also serious drug trafficking offenses.
Further analysis of the released detainees shows they originated from various countries, some of which are on the U.S. State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism or Countries of Particular Concern.
The legal statuses granted to these criminals ranged from parole and bond to release on their own recognizance or supervision orders, raising concerns about the adequacy of the oversight and the potential risks posed by such individuals once freed.
The magnitude of the issue is highlighted by broader ICE arrest records, showing that between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, more than 387,000 criminal noncitizens were arrested, indicating a massive scale of criminal behavior among foreign nationals on U.S. soil.
Additionally, data reveals that there are more than 662,000 foreign nationals in the U.S. identified for deportation, among which over 14,914 are homicide offenders and 20,061 are sexual assault offenders.
The criticism by Skrmetti is not isolated, as multiple states joined Tennessee in suing the federal government over the termination of Title 42, reflecting a wider discontent with federal immigration policies and enforcement practices.
Attorney General Skrmetti’s statements have been vehement and scathing regarding the federal government’s handling of immigration law enforcement.
“The federal government’s single most important job is to keep dangerous people out of our country and instead it has let killers and rapists illegally cross our border and walk free on our streets,” he pointed out bitterly.
Skrmetti continued his critique in a series of communications, emphasizing that his office "will keep fighting to hold the federal government accountable for its catastrophic ongoing failure to enforce immigration laws," as he asserted in a post on social media following the release of the lawsuit data.
Asserting his commitment to transparency and accountability in handling the immigration crisis, Skrmetti vowed to persevere with the legal battle. “While the urgent work to fix our broken immigration system continues in Washington, my Office will keep fighting for transparency and accountability,” he promised, reiterating a strong stance against federal policies he views as endangering public safety.
The revelations from Tennessee echo a nation-wide concern about immigration enforcement effectiveness and its implications for community safety. This significant disclosure of ICE's purportedly lax practices feeds into ongoing debates over immigration policy and law enforcement's role in ensuring public security.
The lawsuit conducted by Tennessee and other states appears to be a critical step towards addressing these systemic issues, with potential repercussions for immigration practices moving forward.