During an interview with NBC News that took place on Wednesday and was released Thursday, Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director of ICE P.J. Lechleitner said that President Joe Biden “absolutely” should have taken the executive actions he took on the border sooner.
NBC News Homeland Security Correspondent Julia Ainsley asked, “We saw millions of immigrants come across the border, and I know you’re not focused on the border, but you’re focused on the ramifications. … A lot of that came down, those numbers drastically fell, especially starting in June, when the new executive action went into place. Do you think that Biden should have taken that action earlier?”
Lechleitner answered, “Yes, absolutely, yes, he should have. The administration should have taken that action earlier, and I think the career people in DHS would have liked that, and all of us in DHS, quite frankly. I don’t know if anybody in DHS wouldn’t have wanted that earlier. Maybe there are some counselors here or there that don’t like this kind of stuff, but law enforcement is always going to be on that side where we want some tighter controls. Because, as we — for a while there, you remember, it was 10,000-plus.”
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