illegal immigrant

With the record number of illegal immigrants allowed into the United States, there is a growing number of hardened criminals who were already convicted of violent crimes prior to their arrival here. Tens of thousands of such foreigners have crossed the southern border from Mexico in recent years, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics, with a notable acceleration during President Joe Biden’s first year in office.

U.S. border officials track the number of people who cross the border illegally, and who have a findable criminal record, either in the United States or in a country that shares its information.

During President Obama’s last year in office, the number of illegal immigrants arrested at the border with a known criminal record was 12,842.

Under President Trump, the number steadily declined. His first year, 2018, the number was cut by one-third to 8,531. Even as Trump opponents and open-border advocates fought border enforcement initiatives, the number of convicted criminals crossing into the United States and getting arrested dropped about 2,000 per year, until it was down to 2,438 in 2020.

Then under President Biden’s relatively open-border policy, the number bumped back up to well past 10,000 in 2021. (10,763)

Noted by type of crime committed, border officials counted more than 1,100 (1,178) assault, battery, and domestic violence convictions among noncitizens illegally crossing the border in 2021.

When it comes to sexual offenses, including rape, there were 156 known convictions discovered among illegal border crossers during Trump’s last year in office. The number more than tripled to 488 during Biden’s first year.

There are also dozens of stone-cold killers among the illegal border crossers: 60 convicted of homicide or manslaughter last year alone, shattering what was the recent high of 8 during Obama’s final year, and a 1000 percent spike over Trump’s last year in office (3).

Up more than 500 percent last year: the number of convictions for Driving Under the Influence (DUI); assault, battery and domestic violence; illegal drug possession and trafficking; and burglary, robbery, larceny, theft, and fraud.

Up nearly 700 percent in Biden’s first year: illegal gun possession and trafficking convictions.

The numbers don’t count the untold number of illegal immigrants who are not captured.

The Biden administration has taken no publicly announced steps to stem the flow of illegal traffic across the U.S. Southern border.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has defended the administration’s lack of border enforcement by saying, “Sometimes, the tools of deterrence defy values and principles for which we all stand,” and claiming that border policy today is more “consistent with our values” than it was under President Trump.

The federal government has pulled out of negotiations to pay massive settlements to illegal immigrant families who were separated at the border during the Trump administration, lawyers for the families said Thursday.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which had been leading negotiations on the reported $450,000 payments, said the talks have ended, though it didn’t know why.

“It’s hard to understand DOJ’s decision other than it was influenced by political considerations,” Lee Gelernt, an ACLU lawyer, told The Associated Press.

The Justice Department confirmed the breakdown. 

“After months of negotiations, the Biden Administration today abandoned the thousands of families torn apart by the prior administration,” said Tami Goodlette, Director of Litigation at the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.

The payments had become a political loser for the Biden team, with polls showing the public decidedly opposed to the idea.

Faced with that opposition, the ACLU launched an ad campaign in the Washington area this week to try to amp up pressure on President Biden to “repair” the damage done to the families.

“We are now officially putting the Biden administration on notice: Thousands of little children were separated from their parents and remain without justice,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said on Wednesday.

By Thursday, his organization was acknowledging the negotiations failed.

A St. Paul man with no driver's license was speeding when he lost control of his SUV and barreled off a city street, killing a teen as she sat in the grass waiting for a bus on the city's East Side, according to charges filed Friday.

Carlos Viveros-Colorado, 50, of St. Paul, was charged with criminal vehicular homicide in the death of Clarisse Grime, 16, who died Thursday after being struck in front of Harding High School, about 40 feet from E. 3rd Street. Grime was with her boyfriend, Eduardo Vazquez-Torres, 17, waiting in a shady area for a bus after finishing the day's summer school classes. 

Witnesses reported that the driver of a Ford Expedition was speeding east on 3rd Street when the driver lost control, hit a fire hydrant and then drove over a sidewalk and into the grassy area, according to a complaint filed by Ramsey County prosecutors.

Viveros-Colorado has never had a Minnesota driver's license, according to Doug Neville, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety. Public records show that he previously was convicted of drunken driving in 2001, and in April was fined $100 after pleading guilty to driving without a license in Newport.