Immigration and Customs Enforcement Archives

Top Biden Nominee Ordered Staff Not to Cooperate with ICE, Memo Shows

May 12, 2023 Just the News

President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Labor previously ordered staff at her former post to not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to a memo that Republican lawmakers obtained.

Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, whom Biden has tapped to lead the department permanently, previously headed the California Labor Commission. During her tenure in that posting, Su authored a memo directing staff not to voluntarily cooperate with federal immigration agents and to ask that they leave the premises, Fox News reported.

Commentary: The Unacceptable Cost of Open-Border Mission Creep

February 7, 2023 Admin

One of the pitfalls of political extremism is that a few bad foundational ideas beget a host of even worse ideas and results. Such is the case with our immigration crisis, as what began with faculty lounge bull sessions has become accepted government policy that now threatens America’s future.

The idea that America’s borders should be softened to the point that any noncitizen could enter the country on his own terms was always problematic. From that flawed logic has come an intricate web of problems that most in our government have no will, no courage, and no competence to repair.

California Issued Driver Licenses to Over a Million Illegal Aliens Since 2015

January 31, 2023 Arizona Sun Times Staff

A new report shows that California, a Democrat-controlled sanctuary state, has issued over one million driver’s licenses to illegal aliens living in the state since 2015, after a law was passed that eliminated the state’s legal resident requirement for obtaining such licenses.

As reported by Breitbart, the figures were revealed in a study published by CalMatters, which showed that roughly 4 out of every 10 illegals in California have been given a state-issued license. There are estimated to be at least 3.3 million illegals living in the state.

Feds Lost Track of 150k Migrants due to Biden’s ‘No Processing’ Policy, Training Video Shows

December 21, 2022December 20, 2022 Just the News

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials lost track of 150,000 migrants that entered the United States due to the Biden administration’s “no processing” immigration policy, a training video from the federal agency shows.

The Biden administration launched “Operation Horizon” in November 2021 to try to locate 150,000 migrants that were released in the summer earlier that year, but the training videos published Tuesday by Fox News show that officials had difficulty tracking down the migrants due to a lack of identifying information.

Government Officials Have a Special Portal to Flag Facebook Posts for Censorship

November 1, 2022October 31, 2022 Arizona Sun Times Staff

The Department of Homeland Security has left open a special feature that allows government officials to flag Facebook posts for misinformation after scrapping a controversial advisory board tasked with developing guidelines for social media censorship, the Intercept reported Monday.

DHS announced plans for a Disinformation Governance Board to “develop guidelines, standards, guardrails to ensure that the work that has been ongoing for nearly 10 years does not infringe on people’s free speech rights, rights of privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in May, according to The Hill. While DHS shuttered the initiative after an onslaught of bipartisan opposition decrying the potential censorship, the Intercept found through an analysis of public and leaked documents that government efforts to police tech companies goes on.

Illegal Immigrant Faces Murder and Kidnapping Charges in Alabama

August 9, 2022August 8, 2022 Admin

The alleged kidnapper of a 12-year-old girl in Alabama was a previously deported illegal alien, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday.

José Paulino Pascual-Reyes, 37, who was arrested for alleged kidnapping in the first degree about 25 miles from Auburn, Alabama, was deported in 2014 and is currently in the U.S. illegally, the ICE spokesperson told the DCNF. He has since been charged with three counts of capital murder, Tallapoosa County Sheriff Jimmy Abbett told the DCNF.

ICE Officially Considers Military Service When Deciding to Deport Non-Citizen Vets and Families

June 8, 2022June 7, 2022 Admin

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Tuesday that it will officially consider migrants’ US military service before deciding whether to enforce civil immigration actions, such as deportation, against them or their family members.

While ICE has previously recognized US military service as a mitigating factor, the Biden administration’s directive makes consideration of US military service an official agency policy. The department will take into account the non-citizen US veteran’s type of discharge, length of service, and other related factors before deciding to take action against an illegal immigrant and their immediate family members.

Border Patrol Memo Lays the Groundwork for Mass Release of Illegal Immigrants into the US

May 23, 2022May 22, 2022 Admin

Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz instructed agency leadership on how the agency plans to release migrants amid a border surge, according to a memo sent Thursday exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

In the memo, which was sent to chief patrol agents and directorate chiefs, Ortiz recognized that Border Patrol faces a “current migrant surge and is preparing for the anticipated increase in encounters of undocumented noncitizens following the anticipated lifting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s [CDC] Title 42 public health order.”

Senate Confirms Biden’s ‘Radical’ FTC Pick Criticized for Anti-ICE Stance

May 15, 2022May 14, 2022 Arizona Sun Times Staff

The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee Alvaro Bedoya to the empty fifth seat on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The 50-50 Senate vote was broken with a tie breaking vote by Vice President Kamala Harris, and gives Democrats a 3-2 advantage at the FTC. Bedoya, who is professor at Georgetown Law, was previously criticized by Senate Republicans for his past comments on social media and in other outlets opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after President Joe Biden announced his nomination.

Commentary: Nearly All of the 2.5 Million Illegal Immigrants Apprehended Since Biden Took Office Have Been Released

April 1, 2022March 31, 2022 Arizona Sun Times Staff

Since President Joe Biden was sworn into office in Jan. 2021, more than 2.5 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended at the southern border, the greatest unchallenged influx of illegal immigrants in American history, according to data compiled by U.S. Customs & Border Patrol (CBP).

Of those, just 167,392 were either deemed inadmissible or expelled due to health concerns, according to the CBP.

Commentary: States vs. Biden’s Prison-to-Streets Pipeline for Illegal Immigrant Convicts

March 31, 2022March 30, 2022 RealClearWire

The Biden administration has allowed a more than eleven-fold increase in the number of illegal immigrant offenders let out of Texas prisons and into the general U.S. population, despite federal immigration law requiring ICE to take convicts into custody after serving their time, usually in advance of deportation.

The disclosure emerges from state-initiated litigation that is beginning to shed light on what critics call the administration’s secretive and lenient handling of immigrants beginning last year – treatment that is imperiling public safety, alarmed state authorities say.

‘The Answer Is No’: Federal Judge Blocks Biden Administration’s Attempt to Halt Certain ICE Deportations

March 24, 2022March 23, 2022 Arizona Sun Times Staff

A federal judge ruled Tuesday against the Biden administration’s attempt to halt certain Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations.

The ruling comes in response to a joint lawsuit filed by Republican Attorneys General from multiple states, including Arizona’s Mark Brnovich, Ohio’s Dave Yost, and Montana’s Austin Knudsen, against the Biden administration over its rollbacks on some deportations of noncitizens.

ICE Deportations Decrease by 70 Percent Under Biden in 2021

February 11, 2022February 10, 2022 Arizona Sun Times Staff

An annual report by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reveals that the agency deported fewer illegal aliens in 2021 than in the preceding five years, with a staggering 70 percent drop from the number of deportations in 2020.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, ICE’s report showed that just under 55,600 illegals were deported in 2021. In 2020, by contrast, over 185,000 illegals were deported, while over 267,000 were deported in 2019.

Report: More Than 50,000 Illegal Immigrants Released into U.S. Don’t Show for Court Hearings

January 14, 2022January 13, 2022 The Center Square

More than 50,000 illegal immigrants released into the U.S. by Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to report to their deportation proceedings during a five-month period analyzed last year, according to a report provided by the Department of Homeland Security to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin. The report also states that ICE doesn’t have court information on more than 40,000 individuals it’s supposed to prosecute.

“Between March and August 2021, as a result of the Biden Administration’s failed border policies, over 270,000 illegal aliens have been dispersed into the United States with little chance for removal,” Johnson said in an announcement accompanying the report, which didn’t include data from the other seven months of the year.

Biden Administration Says It Doesn’t Release Migrants Without Court Dates … Anymore

November 18, 2021November 17, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

The Biden administration said it’s no longer releasing migrants into the U.S. without court dates, CNN Politics reported Tuesday.

Migrants will be issued formal notices to appear in an immigration court when released from federal custody instead of notices to report, which direct them to check in with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office within 60 days, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, according to CNN.

ICE to Send Documents to 78,000 Illegal Migrants Who Were Released into U.S. Without Court Dates

November 11, 2021 Admin

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced a plan to send court documents to 78,000 illegal migrants who were released into the U.S. after crossing the southern border this year, CBS News reported on Tuesday.

The documents describe court hearings where migrants can make their cases to stay in the country to an immigration judge, according to CBS News. The documents will include notices to appear and other information typically issued during regular processing.

Migrants Sleep Outside Immigration Offices to Check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement

November 1, 2021October 31, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

Migrants are sleeping outside immigration offices waiting to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, the Houston Chronicle reported on Friday.

Migrants started spending the night outside the Greenspoint Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Houston, Texas, so they would be guaranteed an appointment the next day, according to the Chronicle. Around a dozen migrants from Central America and Venezuela set up camping chairs or decided to sleep in their cars on Thursday.

Report: Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officials Made the Lowest Number of Arrests in at Least a Decade

October 27, 2021October 27, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials made the lowest number of arrests from September 2020 through September 2021 in at least a decade, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations agents made around 72,000 arrests in the fiscal year 2021, according to the Post. During the same time frame in 2020, the officials made 104,000 arrests and averaged another 148,000 arrests annually between 2017 and 2019.

Mollie Hemingway Commentary: Taking on the Establishment

October 19, 2021October 19, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

Before the 2018 midterm elections, Trump’s political advisors were thinking about the president’s re-election bid and noticed a curious commonality among incumbent presidents who didn’t get re-elected: they all faced challengers from within their own party.

Five U.S. presidents since 1900 have lost their bids for a second term. William Taft lost to Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover lost to Franklin Roosevelt, Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton. While each election is determined by unique factors, all five of these failed incumbents dealt with internal party fights or serious primary challenges.

DHS Stops ‘Mass’ ICE Worksite Raids of Undocumented Workers, Will Instead Target Employers

October 13, 2021 Admin

The Department of Homeland Security issued a memorandum that will stop “mass” Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids of undocumented workers at job sites and instead target employers, the agency announced Tuesday.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to prosecute “employers who exploit the vulnerability of undocumented workers,” DHS Secretay Alejandro Mayorkas said in the memorandum. He added that the raids negatively impact workers who may already be subjected to low wages and unsafe working conditions.

Number of Detained Illegal Immigrants Declines as ICE Arrests Hardly Any

September 9, 2021September 8, 2021 Admin

The number of detained illegal immigrants slightly declined as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have hardly arrested anyone, federal data processed by the Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse shows.

Around 25,000 people are currently detained at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, though Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials apprehended most of the immigrants held in the detention centers, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) Assistant Professor Austin Kocher.

ICE Halted Deportation of Criminal Illegal Alien Due to Far-Left Activist’s Request

August 16, 2021August 15, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

Internal emails from within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reveal that the acting director went out of his way to block the deportation of an illegal alien with a criminal record after a request was made by a far-left “Abolish ICE” activist, as reported by Fox News.

The request was made by Tania Mattos, who serves as a policy director with the far-left pro-amnesty group Freedom for Immigrants. Mattos was an illegal alien herself before being granted amnesty by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and has publicly called for the abolition of ICE.

Biden Admin Is Reportedly Flying Migrants to a West Texas Town Before Releasing Them

August 12, 2021August 11, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

The Biden administration is reportedly flying migrants to Abilene, Texas, before releasing them to board other flights with destinations around the U.S., KTAB News reported Thursday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reportedly flown migrants to the Abilene Regional Airport in unmarked planes before loading them onto buses on at least two occasions this month, according to KTAB. Migrants were later recorded disembarking the same buses and boarding flights to several U.S. cities.

Biden Administration Allegedly Planning to Distribute Johnson and Johnson Vaccine to Illegal Aliens

August 5, 2021August 4, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

Joe Biden is planning an effort to distribute doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to illegal aliens pouring into the United States across the southern border, as reported by Breitbart.

The report first came from the Washington Post, after several officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spoke under condition of anonymity. According to the officials, federal authorities will soon begin administering the single-shot vaccine to illegals currently held in U.S. custody along the southern border with Mexico. DHS plans to get illegals vaccinated as soon as possible upon their entry into the country, to be done even before they are fully processed.

ICE Won’t Detain Most Migrant Women Who Are New or Expecting Mothers for Deportation: Report

July 12, 2021July 11, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials won’t detain most migrant women who are new or expecting mothers for deportation, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The new policy is aimed at the “health and safety” of most pregnant, nursing and postpartum migrant women, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said in a statement, according to the Post. The policy overturns a Trump-era practice where officials detained thousands of new or expecting mothers.

The policy also acknowledges “the time needed for infant development and parental bonding,” the officials said, the Post reported.

Illegal Immigrants Fly American, Courtesy of Biden Border Policy

May 3, 2021May 2, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

About 14 separate families or groups of illegal immigrants boarded a flight Thursday at McAllen International Airport in Texas, the man in charge of border security during the Trump administration told The Daily Signal.

Mark Morgan, former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he watched from a nearby seat as the illegal immigrants boarded the American Airlines flight just after 3 p.m. CDT at the airport of the border town.

“By the eighth or ninth family is when I decided to take pictures,” Morgan told The Daily Signal on Friday. “I decided to take a video when I saw a large family with an infant child.”

ACLU Asks Biden Admin to Shut Down ICE Detention Facilities

May 1, 2021April 30, 2021 Arizona Sun Times Staff

The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Biden administration to close 39 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities in a letter Wednesday.

People in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody reportedly experienced sexual abuse, forced sterilization, increased use of force and solitary confinement, according to the organization. The ACLU wants ICE facilities with previous reports of inhumane treatment and those located in remote locations to be closed.

“Closing detention sites should be an easy decision. Millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted to maintain thousands of empty beds and keep asylum seekers and immigrants in inhumane and life-threatening conditions,” ACLU Senior Advocacy and Policy Counsel Naureen Shah said in a statemen