Anti-ICE protests and the rise of sanctuary jurisdictions are straining federal immigration enforcement efforts, forcing the agency to divert personnel and hindering its ability to carry out arrests and deportations, acting Director Todd Lyons told The Washington Times.
Lyons attributed much of the disruption to political rhetoric that, he said, has fueled hostility toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Most of the bombastic and inflammatory rhetoric has come from Democrats and the left-leaning media.
In a wide-ranging interview, Lyons defended ICE’s operations and criticized Democratic-run sanctuary jurisdictions for encouraging what he described as attacks, misinformation, and unrest directed at his officers, the Times reported.
He also sought to dispel several misconceptions about the agency, including claims that it arrests U.S. citizens or targets children at schools. Lyons said ICE agents seen near schools are often searching for unaccompanied migrant children released into the U.S. by the Biden administration who have since gone missing.
The children, formally designated as unaccompanied alien children (UACs), were a major challenge during the surge in border crossings under President Biden. Roughly half a million were encountered during his tenure, most released to sponsors.
Lyons said the scale of arrivals led to limited vetting, resulting in unsafe conditions for many of those children.
According to an inspector general report, the federal government lost track of about 300,000 migrant children and mishandled some 65,000 reports of potential issues. Lyons said the new administration is working to locate as many of the children as possible and reunite them with family members.
As of July, approximately 13,000 had been found, he told the Times.
“Yet we’re being accused of, ‘Oh, you’re going to schools and rounding up children,’” Lyons told the outlet. “All we’re trying to do is locate these poor kids. And that’s the last known address we have.
“Yet you have some media outlets or some elected officials that will put that spin on it, that this great mission that we’re trying to do to locate and find and help these poor children is being torn apart in the news or for political rhetoric,” he added.
Lyons recounted cases of what ICE calls “super-sponsors,” who claimed 30 or 40 children from the government.
“And then you go there, and that address is a 7-Eleven or it just doesn’t exist anymore,” he said. “So then you have to wonder, where do these children go?”
Lyons also denied accusations that his agency is abducting — or, in some of the more extreme rhetoric, “kidnapping” — U.S. citizens.
“That’s not the case. ICE, when we go out and make an arrest, we know exactly who we’re going for. It’s intelligence-driven, target-based,” he told the outlet.
Lyons also rejected claims from local prosecutors in the Chicago area who said that ICE’s presence at courthouses was discouraging witnesses and victims from cooperating in criminal cases, including a murder prosecution.
Prosecutors in Cook County told a federal judge last week that several cases had been affected because witnesses were hesitant to testify or assist in investigations out of fear of being detained by immigration authorities.
According to the prosecutors, the concerns extended to a range of cases, including one involving the wife of a homicide victim, several sexual assault cases, and a number of domestic violence incidents.
“Their fear of arrest makes it more likely that her husband’s murderers will go free and justice will be denied,” Assistant State’s Attorney Jose Villareal claimed, referring to the first case involving the homicide victim’s wife.
Lyons put that back on Democrats who set up sanctuaries for illegal aliens and distorting the ICE mission.
“Only that rhetoric is what’s stoking that fear,” he said. “There’s no proven evidence that ICE will go out and arrest the victim. That just won’t happen.”