ArcaMax

There are over 660,000 illegal migrants already convicted of felonies or facing charges who have come across the southern border and been released into the U.S., according to newly released federal data provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some are in jail -- on the taxpayers' tab, of course -- having been nabbed for committing more crimes once they got here, but many are walking free, spreading their criminality across the nation.

Over 58,000 of these known criminals have come to New York City alone, including 1,000 known members of South American gangs, like Tren de Aragua, that are making city-operated shelters into their headquarters.

Local sanctuary city rules protect these criminals from being deported. It's time to end the sanctuary-for-migrants madness and start offering safety and sanctuary to the country's legal residents.

Many people hear the word "sanctuary" and take it to mean offering hospitality to the needy. No. Sanctuary specifically means barring local law enforcement from notifying ICE when an illegal is arrested. It shields wrongdoers from being deported after their first offense, allowing them to commit more crimes.

New York Police Department crime stats show that in Manhattan's Midtown North, known for Radio City Music Hall, St. Patrick's Cathedral and the theatre district, robberies are up 90%, and felony assaults jumped 73% over a year ago. Cops say 75% of arrests in midtown Manhattan for robberies, assaults and other crimes are migrants.

How did this happen? Migrants are no longer vetted at the border. The numbers are too large, and President Joe Biden has scaled back detention facilities, forcing border personnel to release almost everyone into the U.S. immediately rather than hold them while background checks are done.

Biden also slapped new rules on ICE, limiting what types of felons can be removed once their criminal past is discovered. Not all felonies are disqualifying. New rules also bar ICE from removing illegals with serious mental illness, according to a 2024 report from the General Accounting Office.

President-elect Donald Trump warned repeatedly that some countries are "emptying their prisons. They're emptying their mental institutions." Biden's rules welcomed them all.

During the last election, the far left and their media allies insisted, in the words of The New York Times, "there is no migrant crime surge," adding that "immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S." It was a big lie.

That false claim is still being made -- in Axios, for example.

Here are the facts. Before 2020, the evidence is mixed whether illegals committed more crimes. The left cites a small Texas study that purports to show that U.S. citizens were more likely to be convicted of felonies than illegals. But the data are old, limited to one state, and predate the huge influx of migrants under Biden.

On the other side, research by the Federation for American Immigration Reform found that illegals were far more likely to commit a crime landing them in prison than legal residents: twice as likely in New York and California, three times as likely in New Jersey, and five times as likely in Arizona.

Whatever the facts before Biden became president, migrants pose a risk now because they are no longer vetted.

The sheer number of criminal migrants released into New York City -- 58,000 -- should shake up migrant-pandering politicians to act. Sanctuary city rules granting migrants protection from removal when they commit more crimes is crazy.

Mayor Eric Adams has frequently called for sanctuary rules to be changed. But he also repeatedly claims there is little he can do because the lunatic majority on the City Council is anti-police and soft on crime.

He could have pushed his own Charter Revision Commission to put repeal of sanctuary protections on the ballot last month. He failed to.

Adams should stop dithering and call on Gov. Kathy Hochul to impose an emergency suspension of sanctuary protection by executive order. That would allow ICE to begin deporting known criminals off Gotham's streets with the NYPD's assistance.

Everyone -- except the criminals -- will be safer.

A permanent change will require New York City voters to actually turn out at the polls next November and elect a City Council that wants to protect them, not criminals.

In the last New York City municipal election, only 7.2% turned out for the primary; for the general election, 12.8%. The soft-on-crime leftists won. If New Yorkers want a safe city, they need to vote for it.

Voters in other cities should also mobilize. The Los Angeles City Council voted recently to adopt sanctuary rules. What are they thinking, turning the City of Angels into the city of criminals?

Do not be fooled by the word "sanctuary." Americans are hospitable people, but imported criminals are not welcome.

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Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York State and co-founder of Save Our City at www.saveourcityny.org. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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