WASHINGTON—The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement criticized members of Congress on July 23 for assisting illegal immigrants in evading the law.
“There were people in Congress sitting there giving instructions to people illegally in the country and telling them how to avoid detection and avoid the consequences of their illegal activity,” Matthew Albence said during a call with reporters. “There’s no way for us to quantify what impact that had, but you couldn’t turn on any TV station anywhere in this country for several weeks without this being one of the lead topics.”
Albence said ICE is targeting illegal aliens who have been issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge. While the biggest focus is removing those with criminal convictions, Albence said ICE is now removing family units who have failed to show up at court hearings and haven’t applied for asylum.
