Biden's Delay In Tightening Border Strained Immigration Enforcement Efforts: Acting ICE Director

Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director P.J. Lechleitner has slammed President Joe Biden for allegedly not acting sooner to improve border security and reduce the flow of migrants into the U.S.

The acting director, in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday, explained that the high number of migrants forced ICE to reassign staff to assist Customs and Border Protection (CBP). This had left ICE unable to fully focus on its primary responsibilities.

Lechleitner, who took over the position in July 2023 and was set to leave this week, also said others shared his view that Biden should have taken action earlier.

"I think the career people in DHS would have liked that. And all of us in DHS, quite frankly, I don't know if anybody in DHS wouldn't have wanted that earlier," he said, NBC News reported.

Lechleitner was touching upon Biden's executive action in June, which restricted asylum claims for people who crossed the border illegally. By September, illegal border crossings dropped to 54,000 per month, the lowest since Biden became president.

This brought the numbers back to pre-pandemic levels seen during the fall of 2019 under former President Donald Trump. The numbers have continued to decrease, with only 46,000 illegal crossings reported in November.

The drop happened so quickly that Texas Governor Greg Abbott was unable to find enough migrants to fill buses for sending to cities like New York and Chicago, a practice he had used earlier in Biden's presidency.

Lechleitner's comments came a few days after Biden said in an interview that he had no regrets, and did not mention the situation at the southern border. Lechleitner said he wasn't surprised that Biden didn't consider the lack of action at the border to be one of his regrets.

"It's unfortunate because I think we could have done more," he added. "We could have put more resources to it, either at CBP, for the border itself, and with ICE. And we could have went and tried to get more of these individuals in the non-detained docket."

In the fiscal year 2024, ICE arrested and deported over 47,000 migrants. Lechleitner explained that the agency couldn't have deported more migrants with its current resources. He emphasized that ICE was working at full capacity and would need additional funding and resources to expand its operations, including detention and removal efforts.

Lechleitner also expressed disappointment that the Biden administration was not more open with the public about immigration issues. He believed that more transparency and communication could have helped reduce misinformation and allowed ICE to share the hard work done by the agency and CBP.

However, his team was restricted from conducting regular news conferences, which were initially planned, and he was unsure why they were stopped. Another frustration for Lechleitner was the lack of cooperation from cities with sanctuary policies.

These cities did not inform ICE when undocumented individuals were released from jail, which he saw as a missed opportunity to address public safety and national security concerns. He felt that better cooperation between local authorities and ICE could improve public protection efforts.