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ICE Chief Says Biden ‘Absolutely’ Should Have Acted Sooner To Tighten Border

In an exit interview with NBC News, current acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director P.J. Lechleitner said President Joe Biden should “absolutely” have acted sooner to tighten border security to reduce the flow of migrants into the United States.

Lechleitner, who became acting director in July 2023, said the number of incoming migrants meant his agency had to give staff to Customs and Border Protection to provide help, leaving ICE unable “to do our own core mission adequately.” He also said he was not alone in feeling Biden should have moved faster.

“I think the career people in DHS would have liked that,” he said. “And all of us in DHS, quite frankly, I don’t know if anybody in DHS wouldn’t have wanted that earlier.”

Lechleitner was referring to executive action Biden took this June to restrict people who crossed the border illegally from claiming asylum. By September, the monthly total of illegal border crossings had dropped to 54,000, the lowest since Biden took office. The drop brought the numbers in line with pre-pandemic Trump levels from the fall of 2019. And the numbers have continued to fall, with only 46,000 migrants crossing illegally in November.

The change was so rapid that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could no longer find migrants to fill buses to send to cities such as New York and Chicago as he had done earlier in the Biden administration.

Lechleitner’s opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the administration. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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