Former President Donald Trump posted an ad to X claiming that the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said 435,719 released illegal immigrants are convicted criminals. 

“PRESIDENT TRUMP WARNED US!” pic.twitter.com/6oSVDd1wXg

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2024

Verdict: Misleading 

435,719 represents the number of total illegal immigrants, both released and detained, according to a document from ICE. 425,431 is the actual number of illegal immigrants who have been convicted of a crime and released. ICE says that the data stretches back decades.

Fact Check:

RealClearPolling’s national polls show Trump leading by 0.1 percent against Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, according to Newsweek. This is the first time he has done so since August, previously President Joe Biden led by over seven points against Trump during the 2020 election.

A Trump campaign ad posted to X on Oct. 21 claims 435,719 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes have been released. The video first shows an image of Biden and Harris embracing before showing videos of large crowds moving along roads, rushing inside a building and shaking a wire fence.

“The Biden-Harris administration just admitted they released thousands of illegal immigrants convicted of violent crimes,” a man speaking in the video says.

The video’s text adds that the exact number is 435,719, which the ICE director allegedly stated on Sept. 25. “PRESIDENT TRUMP WARNED US!” the caption reads.

This number is misleading, however. It comes from a Sept. 25 letter from deputy ICE director Patrick J. Lechleitner responding to correspondence from Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales. “As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detained by ICE, and on the agency’s non-detained docket,” it reads, in part. “Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges.”

The letter includes a chart that shows 10,288 detained illegal immigrants have been convicted and 425,431 non-detained illegal immigrants have been convicted. 

The letter’s data is being misinterpreted, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told Check Your Fact via email. (RELATED: Did Theo Von Wager $125k On Donald Trump To Win the 2024 Election) 

“The data goes back decades; it includes individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody determination was made long before this Administration,” the spokesperson said. “It also includes many who are under the jurisdiction or currently incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement partners.”

The Associated Press (AP) reported that the DHS said it has removed 180,000 people under the Biden administration. Doris Meissner, the director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, told the AP that ” [t]his is not something that is a function of what the Biden administration did.”

“”Certainly, this includes the Biden years, but this is an accumulation of many years, and certainly going back to at least 2010, 2011, 2012,” Meissner said.

Check Your Fact reached out to a spokesperson for Trump for comment.