Biden Administration Erases ICE’s ‘Most Wanted’ List for Victims of Illegal Alien Crime

By Jon Feere on June 15, 2021

The Biden administration has removed from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “Most Wanted” webpage six criminal aliens associated with victims who had reached out to ICE for help. This follows the administration’s decision to shutter the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) office, which existed to assist people victimized by criminal aliens.

 

One of the aliens, Edwin Mejia, is suspected in the killing of Sarah Root. Her mother, Michelle Root, is testifying before Congress today. With this change, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has explicitly declared that the arrest of Mejia and the others is not a priority. The Biden administration has made it clear that the interests of American citizens take a back seat to the interests of criminal illegal aliens.

Why is Mayorkas helping Mejia evade arrest? It’s not the first time he’s done so. When Mayorkas was in the Obama administration, DHS allowed Mejia to run free because Mejia “did not meet ICE’s enforcement priorities”, despite being charged with vehicular homicide/driving under the influence, a felony. Their policy choice was that a fully deportable alien must first be convicted of a violent crime before ICE can deport the person. The Trump administration ended these anti-enforcement policies, but President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Mayorkas have put these dangerous policies back into effect.

Mejia came across the border as an unaccompanied alien child (UAC), was released to an alleged family member, and was not a priority for arrest under the Obama administration. This same scenario is happening by the thousands right now. The Biden administration’s policies are a clear indicator that they believe what happened to the Root family is not serious enough to change policy. The facts of this case are well-known to the Biden administration and they are aware that their policies will inflict similar victimization on more families.

The aliens on the now-removed most-wanted list have vehicular homicide charges against them, and some were driving drunk. Their removal from the list is consistent with the Biden administration’s dangerous ICE guidance. Biden, Harris, and Mayorkas don’t consider drunk, unlicensed, reckless driving a serious crime. They also don’t think that violations of the nation’s immigration laws are a problem.

In FYs 2017-2020, nearly 292,000 DUI crimes were on the records of aliens ICE arrested. Over the next four years, these numbers will be much lower because of the Biden administration’s policies. Thus far, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has remained silent.

 

MADD once had a blog post titled “Immigration and Drunk Driving”, but it’s been taken down. On its Facebook account, MADD explains that “MADD doesn’t get involved in immigration issues,” though they did go after Sen. Menendez (D-N.J.) when he complained about the Trump administration deporting illegal aliens with drunk driving records. MADD didn’t address immigration directly, but took issue with Menendez saying drunk driving wasn’t criminal.

My message to MADD: By ignoring DHS’s policy decision to allow thousands of drunk drivers to be released back into our communities — people who could instead be deported to their home countries — you are harming your credibility. Understand that DHS has decided that fully deportable people who have no permission to be in the United States should be allowed to remain here, in most cases, unless they harm someone with an act of violence (and then only maybe). If DHS comes into contact with a removable alien with multiple DUI charges and even a vehicular homicide charge, DHS’s new policies allow that person to be released back into our community, instead of being detained or deported home. This is because the Biden administration has decided that drunk driving is not a serious offense. You should be able to easily take the position that this DHS policy is an obvious threat to public safety. By speaking up, you may get DHS to change its policy and save countless lives.

What do the political appointees running ICE have to say? Media should reach out to Tae Johnson, Tim Perry, John Trasvina, Claire Trickler-McNulty, and Jonathon Bertran-Harris. How many drunk-drivers will they allow to go free this year, despite having no permission to be in the United States? How many people will suffer as a result? The development of a nationwide policy should have required a serious analysis of public safety risk, but it’s unlikely that ever occurred.