More than 13,000 immigrants who have been convicted of homicide either in the United States or abroad are currently living freely in America, according to ICE.
The staggering number was revealed by the agency to Congress earlier this week, as it admitted many of the killers have slipped through the net.
The immigrants are classified as ‘non-detained’ by ICE, meaning they are known to the agency and they have pending immigration cases in America, but they are not behind bars either because they are not prioritized or ICE cannot find them, reports NBC News.
The data comes amid several high-profile murders of Americans allegedly perpetrated by illegal immigrants, including the brutal slaying of University of Georgia student Laken Riley, 22, in February.
After the shocking oversight was revealed, Donald Trump used them to attack Kamala Harris during a campaign stop in Michigan on Friday, saying: ‘I told you so.’
Trump described the immigrants on the list as ‘hard, tough, vicious criminals that are free to roam in our country.’
However, it is not clear when the first of the total 13,099 killer migrants entered the US, and law enforcement sources told NBC that many crossed under Trump’s presidency.
The data was sent to Congress by ICE following a request from Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales, and was collected up until July 21.
While Trump quickly pounced on the figure during his campaign, neither the White House nor Kamala Harris’ campaign have commented on the findings.
One official told NBC that the White House was ‘surprised’ by the number.
Among the over 13,000 killer migrants include some who have never come into contact with ICE, while others may have been let go by the agency as they didn’t have information on their criminal histories.
In some cases, this has been fueled by soft on crime laws in so-called sanctuary cities, where local and state officials release migrants convicted of crimes without notifying ICE.
For the convicted immigrant to then be deported, it is left up to ICE to track them down and detain them.
While sources reportedly said the agency prioritized violent offenders on its ‘non-detained’ docket, the total number of migrants on the list is currently over 7.5 million.
ICE Acting Director P.J. Lechleitner said after the release of the data that he is seeing an uptick in local law enforcement cooperating with immigration efforts due to a slew of crimes and murders allegedly perpetrated by illegal immigrants.
One such case that captured national attention was the brutal slaying of University of Georgia student Laken Riley in February.
Illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra, 26, was charged with the murder, as prosecutors say he was seen on video cameras stalking around her dormitory before she was killed on a nearby running trail.