BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has made his voice loud and clear that the U.S. should not tolerate the presence of illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes.

Landry joined a coalition of 18 state attorneys general in urging President Joe Biden and other political decision makers to reverse the Biden Administration’s last-minute cancellation of Operation Talon – a nationwide ICE operation that focuses on deporting those illegal immigrants convicted of such crimes.

“Operation Talon, which targets convicted sex offenders who are in our country illegally, is vital to both national security and public safety in Louisiana,” said Attorney General Landry regarding his request to Biden and , Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Tae Johnson.

“Canceling this effort not only emboldens sexual predators and traffickers, but it also shows the world that President Biden tolerates and encourages the breaking of our laws.”

“We cannot allow America to become a sanctuary jurisdiction for sexual predators,” continued Landry. “The Biden Administration must reverse their decision on Operation Talon immediately.” 

Citing data collected by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse – Attorney General Landry and his colleagues note that during the period from October 2014 to May 2018, ICE arrested 19,752 illegal aliens with criminal convictions for whom the most serious prior conviction was a conviction for a sex-related offense.