US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in the Biden-Harris administration “knowingly released murderers and rapists from its immigration detention centers onto America’s streets,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said when he released the data which he obtained through a trial.

“Our office will continue to fight to hold the federal government accountable for its continued catastrophic failure to enforce immigration laws,” he said in post on social media.

Skrmetti’s office obtained the records after Gov. Bill Lee first learned in December 2022 that ICE had contacted Nashville officials in an effort to coordinate the release of a large number of foreign nationals in the city before the federal public health authority. 42 to end in May. 2023. The city and state requested information from ICE about how many were sent, from where, what resources were provided to help, among other questions. They also submitted questions through Freedom of Information Act requests, did not receive the information they requested and later sued to get it, Skrmetti said.

Multiple states sued over Title 42, including Tennessee. Florida and Texas sued separately to stop a plan by the Biden-Harris administration to en masse release illegal border crossers into the U.S. rather than detain and process them for removal under federal law, The Center Square. reported. Courts ruled in favor of the states, although Title 42 ended when the national emergency in the COVID-19 era ended.

“Archives show ICE’s plan to release migrants in this state was quashed by pushback from Tennessee’s governor and U.S. senators, and ultimately stopped by successful litigation from the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and other states,” Skrmetti . said in a statement last week. “The information also shows that while ICE abandoned its failed plan to mass release detainees in Tennessee, the agency still released more than 7,000 detainees directly from its facilities in Louisiana at that time, including more than 30 assigned the most ICE’s high security threat level. .”

The 384 pages of documents reveals that ICE’s New Orleans office has been coordinating extensively with city officials and nonprofit and faith-based organizations in its region to transport, house and assist people crossing the border illegally, preparing for a mass release as Title 42 rolls out he concluded.

The documents also listed where thousands of unaccompanied foreign nationals were held in facilities in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Among them were about 7,000 with criminal records including murder, sexual assault, aggravated assault with a weapon, armed robbery, kidnapping, alien smuggling, drug trafficking, burglary and fraud, according to the documents.

They are citizens of many countries, including Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Bangladesh, Belize, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru , Romania, Russia, Somalia, Syria, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Venezuela.

The US State Department has designate Cuba and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism; China and Russia are among the 20 countries designated as countries of particular concern. Under current law, citizens of these countries rarely qualify for asylum.

The document shows that those with criminal records were paroled, released, released on their own recognizance or released on a supervision order. Few have applied for asylum, according to the documents.

The documents were released nearly two years after ICE-New Orleans contacted Tennessee officials and after ICE recently reported that hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens released to the U.S. have criminal records.

The report states that more than 662,000 criminal aliens have been identified for deportation, two-thirds of whom are convicted felons, The Center Square. reported. Among the worst are those convicted or charged with homicide (14,914), sexual assault (20,061), assault (105,146), kidnapping (3,372) and trafficked sex crimes, including sex trafficking (3,971).

In a separate database, ICE reported arresting more than 387,000 criminal noncitizens between 2021 and 2023, including violent criminals, The Center Square first reported.

“The federal government’s most important job is to keep dangerous people out of our country, and instead it has let murderers and rapists illegally cross our border and walk free on our streets,” Skrmetti said. “As the urgent work to fix our broken immigration system continues in Washington, my office will continue to fight for transparency and accountability.”