Biden Has Changed Which Immigrants ICE Targets, But He's Still Being Criticized On Both Sides
“If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority,” a senior ICE official told BuzzFeed News.
Picture of Hamed Aleaziz Hamed Aleaziz BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on May 19, 2021, at 4:33 p.m. ET
ICE agents escort a man during a raid in Richmond, Virginia, in 2018.
US immigration officials have focused more of their enforcement efforts on people with criminal histories who are deemed “public safety threats,” leading to a drop in overall arrests even as the new priorities are criticized by parts of President Joe Biden’s left base and fuel pushback from the right.
Unlike the Trump administration, which treated every undocumented immigrant as a priority for arrest and removal, Biden wants to target certain types of undocumented immigrants, primarily those with past convictions for certain crimes. Conservative critics say officers have been hamstrung and effectively told not to do their jobs.
“ICE’s goal isn’t to try to rack up numbers. It is to protect public safety and protect national security,” a senior ICE official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told BuzzFeed News.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/ice-arrests-priorities-biden-critics
