President Joe Biden’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has halted the deportation of an illegal alien convicted felon at the behest of an “Abolish ICE” activist, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson reports.
In a segment on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson revealed that ICE Acting Director Tae Johnson has allowed illegal alien Marvin Jerezano Pena, a convicted felon, to remain in the United States after a request from Abolish ICE activist Tania Mattos with the open borders group Freedom for Immigrants.
Pena was once a recipient of former President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and, as Tucker notes, has a criminal record that includes robbery, simple assault, and drug charges. Likewise, Pena was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge in July 2020.
“Why would an NGO have control over U.S. government policy? But in fact, it’s happening and we can prove it,” Carlson said.
In emails obtained by Carlson, and undisputed by ICE officials, Mattos emailed an attorney with ICE asking for “assistance” in Pena’s case. Twenty minutes later, the ICE attorney had forwarded the email to Johnson’s chief of staff Tim Perry.
“Perry deemed that request so important that he requested his staff produce a report on Pena, then discussed the activists’ request on a call with ICE Director Tae Johnson,” Carlson explained:
[Perry] forwarded the criminal report to Johnson and said this ‘”I mentioned this on our call earlier, sharing.” Johnson responded “Gents — can we grant a 14 day stay of removal on this case to provide time to gather additional details.” An official responded “Will do.” [Emphasis added]
When Carlson reached out to ICE to inquire about the decision, officials confirmed that Pena has not been deported from the U.S. despite his criminal record and did not dispute any of the email exchanges and the orders from Mattos.
“This is what they’re doing as our border has turned into total chaos … our country is being invaded by the rest of the world — not just Mexico, not just Latin America, the whole world — and they’re worried about how they can keep a felon in our country without you knowing about it,” Carlson said.
“[The Biden administration] is working with the Abolish ICE movement which now has control over ICE … they no longer have to eliminate ICE, they’re in charge of it,” Carlson continued before ripping into House and Senate Republicans for inaction on the issue.
“How many convicted felons are still in this country because of people like this,” Carlson asked. Why is the Biden administration allowing this? Why are we putting up with it and where are Republicans in Congress? What’re they doing? Oh, voting for Pete Buttigieg’s infrastructure bill — 19 of them.”
As Breitbart News has reported, deportations of illegal aliens have plummeted under the Biden administration as a result of ICE’s insistence that judges use “prosecutorial discretion” when deciding whether illegal aliens should be deported from the U.S. and ICE’s “sanctuary country” orders that are helping about nine in ten illegal aliens evade arrest and deportation.
The latest data shows that just four in ten illegal aliens who go before a federal immigration judge are being ordered deported while 63 percent are being allowed to stay in the U.S. For comparison, in fiscal year 2020, more than seven in ten illegal aliens in immigration court were ordered deported while fewer than three in ten were allowed to remain in the U.S.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.