Peter Doocy Corners KJP on Troubling Criminal ICE Data, Her Answer Doesn't Go Well

By Nick Arama | 9:31 PM on September 30, 2024

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One of the most troubling news reports that dropped last week was data from ICE on criminals who had been allowed into the country. This report came ironically right as Kamala Harris was finally getting around to visiting the actual border. She even made sure that she got pictures alongside former President Donald Trump's wall. It was a cheap effort to make it look like she was doing something prior to the election and make it look like she was doing something. It didn't go over well and I doubt that too many voters were buying this effort.

But it looked like someone at ICE had an interesting sense of timing with dropping the data which was shocking and showed the criminals who had been allowed into the country. It certainly gave the numbers even more attention in light of her visit.

This is the letter that ICE sent to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX).

As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket—13,099 criminally convicted MURDERS!

Americans deserve to be SAFE in our own communities. pic.twitter.com/fIoCAduJ9M
— Rep. Tony Gonzales (@RepTonyGonzales) September 27, 2024

So what do you think White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when Fox's Peter Doocy cornered her on the issue on Monday?

Doocy asked about the 13,000 convicted of murder number.

Doocy: "There are 13,000 people who have been convicted of murder who have crossed the border illegally."

KJP: "This has been fact checked... It has been debunked on what has been falsely represented."

Doocy: "Can you clarify what the misrepresentation is?"

KJP: *Fails… pic.twitter.com/uiOD5kk8Qi
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 30, 2024

Jean-Pierre claimed that this had been "fact-checked" and "debunked."

So Doocy grilled her, "What was the misrepresentation?"

She claimed that the number of criminals that were "out" was misrepresented and that there were more "returns and removals" of illegal aliens over the past year.

The numbers were produced by her own administration, is she saying they are false? And saying how many removals there are overall doesn't deal specifically with the question of addressing the criminals.

Now I'll provide some context that KJP doesn't including that some of these folks while not being held by ICE may be in state or federal prisons and that the data goes back years. But as Fox's Bill Melugin notes the non-detained docket has more than doubled under the Biden administration, from 3.2 million at the end of FY2020 to over 7.3 million now. Anyone still on the non-detained docket is still on them to address.

But her answer wasn't about how she or the administration were going to address the real questions. She acted like there wasn't a real problem. She didn't clarify anything or talk about anything they were doing to address the real issue.

Reactions were not kind to Karine Jean-Pierre's response, including CNN's Scott Jennings.