U.S. Reps. Ann Wagner (R-MO), Sam Graves (R-MO), and Jason Smith (R-MO) recently joined several other Missouri Republicans in questioning President Joe Biden about alleged reports that local law enforcement have been instructed to release illegal immigrant gang members from Venezuela back into the community.
“President Biden’s open-border agenda is threatening the safety of communities across Missouri,” Rep. Smith said in a Nov. 20 statement. “It’s unacceptable that the Biden administration is reportedly instructing local law enforcement in Missouri to release dangerous criminals — who never should have been in the country in the first place — into our communities.”
Rep. Smith joined Rep. Wagner, Rep. Graves, and five other lawmakers from their home state in expressing “deep and growing concern” regarding the administration’s supposed refusal to hold Venezuela accountable for delays in the removal process for illegal immigrants.
“These delays, sometimes indefinite, not only give the appearance that a foreign nation is being allowed to dictate the enforcement of U.S. immigration law, but also put our communities at risk,” they wrote in a Nov. 20 letter sent to Biden.
The lawmakers wrote that on Oct. 25, local law enforcement in Clinton County, Mo., conducted a traffic stop and briefly detained two Venezuelan nationals who were identified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations as members of the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang.
“Despite the threat these individuals pose to the citizens of Missouri, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel contacted local law enforcement personnel and advised that they release the individuals in question because Venezuela refused to accept them,” according to the letter. “This is not an isolated incident, of the 334,914 Venezuelan nationals encountered by Customs and Border Protection in fiscal year 2023, only 834 were removed by ICE.”
The lawmakers asked Biden to answer several questions, including why ICE advised local law enforcement in Clinton County to release one confirmed and one presumed member of Tren de Aragua on Oct. 25, and what steps his administration has taken to pressure Venezuela to cooperate on the deportation of gang members who are in the United States illegally, among others.