Fact checking Trump's "worst of the worst"

At a press conference on Tuesday, President Trump held up pictures of some of the "worst of the worst" criminals that ICE has arrested in Minnesota. They come from a list publicized by the Department of Homeland Security.

Thanks to the Minnesota Star Tribune, we now have data on what those numbers represent for Operation Metro Surge in this state. Federal officials say they’ve arrested 3,000 immigrants in Minnesota.

They've only released the names of 240 (7%) of those arrested and described as the "worst of the worst." Of those:

• 70 have felony convictions for violent crimes. For example, one man, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2005 and has been in prison, was released and deported in October - before Metro Surge started.
• 70 have been in Minnesota serving time in federal prison. Federal policies require immigrants who commit crimes to serve their sentences before being deported. ICE is aware they are in custody and can deport them upon release.
• 48 violated immigration law by re-entering the U.S. after deportation.
• 12 had petty misdemeanor offenses like traffic tickets.
• 12 had no state record of past convictions or prison sentences.
• Others had criminal histories that are decades old and have completed their sentences.

In other words, after all of the terror being inflicted on this state, the best that can be said about deporting criminals is that ICE has arrested about 50 immigrants who either re-entered the U.S. after deportation or have committed petty misdemeanor offenses. The remainder of the "worst of the worst" would have either been deported regardless of the surge, or there is no history of criminal activity. 

Trump used the accusations of fraud in Minnesota to implement the surge targeted at Somalis. The problem the administration faced with that goal is that only about 5,000 Somalis in this state (with a population of 5.8 million) are not citizens. That figure includes people here through other legal means, such as permanent residents and green card holders.

Overall the number of undocumented immigrants in Minnesota is very small.

Finding that less than 1% is pretty close to the equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack. When so few of that 1% are violent criminals (most of whom the state or federal government has already prosecuted), snatching brown/black people off the street or at gas stations is obviously not an effective strategy. 

None of that has stopped this administration from terrorizing the entire state. So I'll take a hard pass on all of this having anything to do with either immigration or crime.