ABCs 3% delusion on criminal migrants turns the law on its head

The media’s at it again: Trying to whip up public hysteria over immigration enforcement.“President Donald Trump had pledged to target the ‘worst of the worst’ criminal offenders among the nation’s migrants,” ABC News intoned this month — yet “just 3% of recent ICE detainees had a violent felony conviction.”The story zoomed around social media and was picked up by other outlets, many of which implied that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has somehow betrayed its focus on public safety.But that argument rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of both immigration law and the purpose of immigration enforcement.ABC’s statistic is real — of the 438,537 illegal immigrants detained in the administration’s first 14 months, 13,018 of them had been convicted of a crime like homicide or sexual assault in the US.Yet its conclusion is utterly wrong, ignoring the impact of the most significant immigration law Congress has enacted in years: the Laken Riley Act.Americans should remember why Congress passed that law.Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was murdered in February 2024 by an illegal immigrant who had been apprehended for committing lesser offenses and released into the United States.Her vicious killing sparked outrage over a system that repeatedly ignored warning signs — until an innocent American paid the ultimate price.Congress responded with a clear message: Immigration authorities shouldn’t wait for illegal immigrants to commit murder, rape, robbery or other violent felonies before taking action.Instead, the Laken Riley Act expanded mandatory-detention rules to include illegal immigrants who are arrested for, or admit to, a range of crimes including burglary, theft, larceny and shoplifting.People like Javier Hernandez Rosas, an alleged MS-13 member from Mexico with arrests for abduction and weapons possession, now in ICE detention.Or Nelson Vladimir Amaya-Benitez of El Salvador, charged with armed robbery and theft.Congress decided ...