The Worst of the Worst
13th July 2025
As far as I can tell from my deep dive into the illegal immigration issue, the Feds really are concentrating their efforts on the worst cases. Yet, the typical media headline, this one from NPR, reads,
Sharpest growth in ICE detention population: people with no criminal convictions.
Obviously, this definition excludes any convictions having to do with the illegal immigration itself. By “no” they refer to convictions only in the United States.
And by using “convictions” they exclude a huge population of aliens charged with other serious crimes but deported before the local judicial system has run its course.
Illegal entry into the United States is a criminal act, as the name implies. But it is considered a misdemeanor, and usually prosecuted as a civil matter through Federal Immigration Court, a division of the U.S. Dept. of Justice.
If you return to the U.S. after being previously deported, that is a separate crime, a felony under U.S. law. For the past few weeks, I’ve been tracking such cases in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota.
I’ve been tracking 60 of the cases filed in the District since Pres. Trump began his second term. Which is admittedly a drop in the bucket considering there are easily more than 100,000 illegal aliens in Minnesota. The last rigorous study of the phenomenon (using 2019 data) counted only 81,000. Of those, the plurality are from Mexico. Add in illegals from El Salvador and Guatemala, and you have the majority.