Congress delivered a spanking to ICE in the new spending bill this week, prodding the agency to release long-overdue reports on how immigration enforcement fared during the first year under President Biden.
Tucked inside the report accompanying the Homeland Security section of the bill was this admonition: “ICE is directed to continue issuing the annual ICE Fiscal Year ERO and HSI reports, by no later than the December following the end of the fiscal year.”
Lawmakers then specified that the report should include “at minimum the categories of data included in the fiscal year 2020 reports, to the extent that such categories of data have not been amended by subsequent policy decisions.”
Fiscal year 2021 ended on Sept. 30, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has yet to reveal its year-end numbers. Those on both sides of the immigration debate — as well as several federal judges — are awaiting data on arrests, deportations and number of deportation “detainer” requests lodged with state and local police departments.
Jon Feere, a former chief of staff at ICE during the Trump years, said the language was a “direct response to the administration’s decision to hide the 2021 report.”
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, House Republicans’ top negotiator on homeland security spending, said the administration has “refused to provide transparency to federal, state, and local officials about their open border policies.”
“Congress has a duty to ensure proper oversight of the Biden Administration. I am glad that the DHS Appropriations Report directs the annual ICE report to be released no later than the end of the fiscal year,” he said. “Appropriations Republicans will continue to demand accountability from Biden’s DHS.”
ICE has been remarkably silent about the delay in the 2021 report, and the agency didn’t respond to an inquiry from The Washington Times for this story.
But several sources have told The Times the numbers are so bad that even Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was taken aback. One source said he fired former ICE Chief of Staff Timothy Perry over the poor numbers.
Mr. Feere said it’s important that the report ICE releases contain data that can be compared to past years, in order to get a sense for how things have changed.
He worried that the language used in the report gives too much wiggle room for the agency.
“If Congress wants to be able to compare ICE enforcement data from year to year, they need to have the basics that were included in the previous years,” he said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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