“It’s terrible. You got record numbers, people coming into the country illegally being released, and a record low of people being removed,” Thomas Homan, who headed the agency during the Trump administration, told The Epoch Times.
“But that’s by design, this isn’t an accident—they want to dismantle ICE. Rather than abolish them, which they had a tough time doing they’re just making them not effective. Looks like it’s working,” he added.
The end goal, according to Homan, is completely halting immigration enforcement.
“They want open borders because they think they’re going to be all future Democratic voters. This is about perpetual power of the government,” he said.
ICE and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. White House press secretary Jen Psaki has not been asked during recent briefings about the low number of deportations.
Only 2,962 deportations were carried out in April, according to the agency. That does not include expulsions made under Title 42 emergency powers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
An ICE spokesman said via email earlier this week that the agency “has concentrated its limited law enforcement resources on threats to national security, border security, and public safety,” which has ”allowed ICE to focus on the quality of enforcement actions and how they further the security and safety of our communities rather than the simple quantity of arrests and removals.”
If an illegal immigrant is encountered who doesn’t fall under one of the areas, an agent must seek approval from their field office before taking any action.
Republicans and some analysts said the low April numbers should not be a surprise given the narrowing deportation criteria.
“With the Biden Administration willfully ignoring the rule of law, it’s no wonder we have a crisis at our southern border,” Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) wrote on Twitter.
Andrew Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy for the Center for Immigration Studies, a research institute that looks at how immigration impacts America, said the current restrictions on ICE incentivize illegal immigration.